Before going back to chiding his opponents in typical fashion, Jon Jones owed it to himself and to the greater MMA community to make his UFC return a meaningful one. At UFC 232, the former Light Heavyweight champ was up against a fighter that he'd faced back in 2013, in defense of the title he hoped to regain last night. His opponent then-and-now, the venerable Alex Gustafsson, is largely considered the toughest SOB plying his trade in the Light Heavy division, whose name isn't Daniel Cormier I should say.
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Alex Gustafsson had as much at stake as his opponent Jon Jones, in the wake of Cormier vacating his title in order to focus on his Heavyweight aspirations, namely a dream fight with WWE phenom Brock Lesnar. But on the night of UFC 232, it was Jon Jones shining the brightest of the three men, his TKO stoppage of Gustaffson shaping the future direction of the Light Heavy division.
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It all went down in the 3rd round when Jones pinned Gustafsson to the mat with his back turned, rendering him defenseless to a barrage of swipes to the head. Although Jones accepted his prize like a true sportsman, you could sense he was waiting to get his hands on a microphone. When he did, his message was clear: he wanted to call out Daniel Cormier in the hopes of completing their trilogy.
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"I know there's a guy who's been calling himself 'champ champ,'" Jones said in his post-fight interview. "I mean, what guy just gives up his belt because somebody else made it home? Although Daniel Cormier was not in attendance to answer Jones' taunts mano a mano, he did, however, muster a word or two on Twitter - Cormier's assumption that Jon Jones profited from "a head start" to gain important ground against Gustaffson. What were your thoughts on the fight?
