Many thought Jon Jones should have lost his UFC light heavyweight title Saturday night. But challenger Alexander Gustafsson will not be granted a rematch of the controversial unanimous decision — at least not yet.
Instead, Jones will meet Glover Teixeira, according to ESPN.com, and that title fight will take place Feb. 1 at Prudential Center in Newark. Jones-Teixeira will be the main event of the UFC’s Super Bowl weekend card.
“That’s what the champ wants,” UFC president Dana White told ESPN.
Jones, the pound-for-pound best MMA fighter in the world, had the toughest bout of his career Saturday night at UFC 165 in Toronto against Gustafsson. He was cut over both eyes and his lip was busted open. Afterward, he was taken to the hospital. But the judges felt he did enough to earn a unanimous decision victory against the Swede. The win broke the UFC record for most consecutive light heavyweight title defenses (six).
Gustafsson will fight in his native Sweden around the same time as Jones-Teixeira and, if he wins, he’ll get Jones in a rematch, White said.
“I said before the [Gustafsson] fight my sights were set on breaking the record,” Jones said in a statement released by the UFC. “I want to crush the record. I want to beat the record so bad it can never be broken. I’m going to fight Glover and I will answer all the critics about the Gustafsson fight. I will fight Gustafsson after I fight Glover. I won the fight but I look at it as a blemish on my record because some people think I didn’t. I promise you, he will be next.”
Jones, 26, was the youngest champion in UFC history. February will mark the third time the upstate New York native has fought at Prudential Center. He won the belt from Mauricio “Shogun” Rua there in 2011 and defeated Chael Sonnen in Newark back in April.
Jones, whose lone loss in the UFC is via disputed disqualification, was released from the hospital Sunday and an MRI revealed no serious injury.
Teixeira, a Brazilian striking specialist, has won 20 straight fights and is coming off a first-round TKO win over Ryan Bader earlier this month.