Joe Nicholson — USA TODAY Sports
Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson is one of the worst main events in recent UFC history.
Jones is probably going to walk right through this guy at UFC 165. Gustafsson somehow was awarded a title shot with Jones even though Gustafsson got cut above the eye days before his fight with Gegard Mousasi and had to back out. Since when do guys who get injured in training still get to keep their spot when vying for a title? Dan Henderson must be irked.
How is it that Gustafsson gets a title shot, but Henderson is still waiting more than a year after he was supposed to fight Jones for the title? Instead, Henderson had to face Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans, two guys he lost to in close, controversial decisions.
Gustafsson just gets the title shot even though he would have a hard time defeating Mousasi, the guy who he was supposed to fight before he cut his eye earlier this year.
It’s a fight, so anything can happen, but Gustafsson is going to have a lot of trouble with Jones. The Swede’s biggest victory came against Maurico “Shogun” Rua, a fight he won by decision. Gustafsson lost his other big fight to Phil Davis, who choked him out. Gustafsson hasn’t fought since Dec. 8, which is a long time before stepping into the cage with the sport’s pound-for-pound great.
Jones has a bad habit of underestimating his opponents, so it’s possible that Gustafsson could turn into Chris Weidman at UFC 165 and pull off a big upset. But, he probably should have been forced to fight someone else before fighting Jones.
Henderson is being forced to run the gauntlet, while Gustafsson has his title shot reserved for him. That’s just not fair, and it will probably end up hurting Gustafsson the most in the end.
Joshua Molina is a mixed martial arts and pro wrestling writer for www.rantsports.com. Follow him on Twitter @JECMolina and add him to your network on Google.
