So much for the highly anticipated light heavyweight title rematch between Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson, as contender Anthony Johnson had other plans. Johnson connected on a big punch that scrambled Gustafsson, and from there he followed up with a finishing flurry to get the stoppage halfway through the first round of their main event fight on FOX last night.
For Gustafsson, it shatters the chances of a highly anticipated rematch with Jones, whom Gustafsson gave by far his biggest challenge in their first meeting. Gustafsson had the rematch signed for September of 2014, but an injury and the substitution of Daniel Cormier to face Jones left him facing Johnson in a match he had to take to avoid a long layoff waiting for the title shot. Now to Gustafsson’s credit, he knew he would be risking his spot as number one contender, and he did accept the fight against Johnson knowing this was a possibility.
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Gustafsson is at a career cross roads, at 28 years old. He is still a valuable commodity and a match with Jones could still materialize down the line, but if the UFC matches him up with Cormier next, he runs the very real risk of dropping two fights in a row which would effectively remove him completely from the title picture.
And for Johnson, his third UFC win in a row and his ninth win in a row overall sets him up with a date against Jones. In the post-fight press conference after the Gustafsson fight, Johnson said that he is confident that he is the hardest puncher Jones has ever faced, and he wants the belt.
Tha main problem for Johnson now is two-fold: Forgotten in the aftermath of his big win against Gustafsson is that Johnson was recently suspended for domestic problems, and he obviously must keep those in check. The second issue is actually waiting around for Jones, who is currently experiencing a lot of turmoil after testing positive for cocaine. Right now, there is no set time table for when the fight with Jones could happen for Johnson, but a long layoff waiting is never recommended, but fighting after you havee earned the number one contender spot can be risky, Johnson can look no further than Gustafsson for proof.
