(They told me I could become anything I wanted, so I became Harry Potter. / Photo via Getty)
Two big pieces of fight-booking news were announced yesterday after UFC Fight Night 30. First up, recent light-heavyweight title contender Alexander Gustafsson will face Antonio Rogerio Nogueira next. Secondly, Melvin Guillard gets another chance to “illegally attack” Ross Pearson after their fight Saturday was cut short by silly rules that are impossible to implement rationally.
Both fights will take place at a “Fight Night” event on March 8th when the UFC returns to London. Gustafsson, of course, is coming off of a very close decision loss to Jon Jones, while Nogueira is on a two fight win-streak, including his decision win over Rashad Evans earlier this year, and his TKO of Tito Ortiz way back in December 2011. Bones will face Glover Teixeira in his next bout, for some reason.
After Jones beats Teixeira and Gustafsson dispatches of Lil’ Nog (at least that’s what the UFC is betting on), Jones and his Swede challenger will once more lock horns. No word yet on who Daniel Cormier will get in his light heavyweight debut, yet.
How do you feel about all of this, nation? Would you rather just see Gustafsson fight Jones again in an immediate rematch than have another potentially epic fight jeopardized by a fight no one outside of the Teixeira household is particularly excited about? And if Jones and Gustafsson are not fighting each other next, isn’t it just a little bit awkward that their actual next opponents are being dismissed so easily?
What’s the point of doing a fight where we’re the winner is pretty much assumed and plans for them are already being made for afterwards? Sounds a lil boxing-esque in our book.