The rematch to one of the greatest fights in MMA history is now official, and I’ll give my thoughts on it in today’s MMA odds and ends.
Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson 2, UFC 232
Light heavyweight rivals Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson will meet at UFC 232, which is set for Saturday, December 29 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. ESPN.com’s Ariel Helwani broke the news. According to Helwani, the UFC is expected to strip UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier once Jones and Gustafsson step into the Octagon, meaning Jones will have the opportunity to win back the title he held for years while Gustafsson will finally have the chance to become a UFC champion. Though this rematch is happening five years after the pair’s first fight at UFC 165 in 2013, there’s no doubt it’s still a compelling rematch in 2018 and the entire MMA world will be watching when it happens. With Jones vs. Gustafsson and UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg vs. UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes in a superfight both on the same card, there’s no doubt UFC 232 is going to be a huge PPV for the UFC. There’s no doubt the UFC has a lot of momentum behind it right now.
Jones vs. Gustafsson 1 was personally one of my favorite fights of all time, and I was lucky enough to watch it live. I wanted to see a rematch immediately after that fight took place, as Gustafsson was the closest man aside from Matt Hamill to defeating Jones, but the rematch never came together until now. And it’s a very interesting matchup. Jones is clearly the best light heavyweight of all time, but he hasn’t fought since his No Contest against Cormier last July and has only fought once a year the last few years. Gustafsson has also had a long layoff as he hasn’t competed since a TKO win over Glover Teixeira last April. So both men will be coming into this rematch off of long layoffs, which throws another wrench into predicting this fight.
As expected, MMA oddsmaker Nick Kalikas opened Jones up as the favorite for the rematch at -250 with the comeback on Gustafsson at +200. So far, the early betting action has come in on Jones, which shouldn’t be a surprise considering he was a huge favorite for the first fight. On one hand, it is hard to bet against Jones given his impeccable record. On the other hand, Gustafsson is the one guy who stylistically can give Jones a lot of problems as he matches up with him in the reach and height departments. We have seen this fight once and like most I wrote off Gustafsson in that one, but I won’t be making that mistake this second time around. I’ll be digging into this one a lot more in the coming months but right now I am waiting to see how high the line gets on Gustafsson. If he’s a monster underdog again like he was in the first fight, he could be the right side for a bet.
