UFC 214 went down last night at the Honda Center in Los Angeles, California. In the main event, light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier attempted to defend his strap against former champion Jon Jones. After a scrappy first round, it seemed as if Cormier had made the proper adjustments to Jones’s range. Cormier really began pushing forward and pressuring Jones, winning him the second round. The third round was going much the same way until Jones uncorked a monster head kick and rocked Cormier. Jones pursued the finish and won the fight seconds later via ground and pound.
With Jon Jones defeating Cormier for a second time and regaining his title and status as champion, the question looms, who is next for the newly crowned 205-pound king?
Alexander Gustafsson
The Swedish former title challenger gave Jon Jones the toughest fight of his career and won FOTY at UFC 165 in 2013. Since then he has gone 3-2 in the octagon, losing only to Cormier and Anthony Johnson. Last May at UFN Gustafsson vs Teixeira, Gustafsson put on a stand up clinic against the veteran Brazilian, winning the fight via vicious uppercuts. With such an impressive win against a top contender, it would be easy to make the case to put Gustafsson in there a second time with Jones.
Volkan Oezdemir
Volkan Oezdemir stormed the UFC light heavy weight division in 2017, winning three fights against top ranked fighters in a row. He got his first shot in the UFC as a late replacement to fight Ovince St. Preux on two weeks notice back at UFC Fight Night 104. Oezdemir beat OSP by split decision and then went on to beat top prospect Misha Cirkunov by a 28 second knock out. Oezdemir took on top contender Jimi Manuwa last night at UFC 214, yet again won by knock out within just one minute. Oezdemir is precisely the type of new talent the UFC needs in the light heavyweight division and could definitely be considered as Jon Jones’s next opponent.
Brock Lesnar
Brock Lesnar is the former UFC heavyweight champion and current WWE competitor. Although he is currently serving a suspension for a failed USADA screening, there seems to be serious talk about Lesnar meeting Jones in the octagon in what would most certainly be a massive attention grabbing super-fight. Jones admits he doesn’t know where or when the idea of the fight started, but states that he would absolutely get in the cage with the former heavyweight champion. Even more interesting is Lesnar’s apparent acceptance for this fight. While it’s all speculation right now, this fight seems to have the most hype behind it.
Who do you think the newly crowned champion, Jon Jones, should fight next?
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