Meeting this Thursday defines the future of Jon Jones, against Gustafsson or Cormier

The next challenger for J. Jones' belt (photo) should be announced this Thursday. Photo: Josh Hedges/UFC

After a series of twists and turns in recent days, the soap opera involving the rematch between Alexander Gustafson e Jon Jones should come to an end this Thursday (05). This is because, according to information from the official UFC Tonight newspaper, Jones and his manager Malki Kawa have a meeting scheduled at the Ultimate office in Las Vegas (USA) to decide on his future. The organization offered a duel against the Swede at UFC 177, on August 30th, but the champion expressed his opposition to the proposal and demonstrated his preference for Daniel Cormier as his next challenger.

On UFC Tonight, journalist Ariel Helwani also revealed that Gustafsson's manager, Manos Terzitane, said that the Swede would be open to negotiating a fight against Daniel Cormier in case of revenge against Jon Jones it would not go away, but only if the confrontation against DC was valid for the interim belt in the light heavyweight category. Cormier himself also said that he is willing to postpone any surgical procedure he needs to undergo on his knee to face Gustafsson or Jones.

In September last year, at UFC 165, Jon Jones won Alexander Gustafson by unanimous decision after five rounds and retained the light heavyweight belt. The duel was awarded “Fight of the Year 2013”. As soon as the fight ended, speculation began about a possible rematch between the Swede and the North American. The repeat of the historic confrontation was announced by Dana White on May 24th, but the director later revealed that the fight's official status still depended on an agreement with Jones – who would not want to face Gustafsson.