White: Jon Jones wants to fight Cormier, not Gustafsson
Dana White: “Lorenzo and I have a meeting with Jon Jones on Thursday to get him to sign the bout agreement, and he’s asking to fight Daniel Cormier instead.”
In a new weekly feature at UFC.com called “The Download” UFC president Dana White discusses the issues of the week.
Fans have been waiting for UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones to sign a bout agreement for a rematch with Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 177 on Aug. 23. Jones isn’t signing, and has offered no explanation beyond some enigmatic tweets.
According to White, Jones wants to fight Daniel Cormier, rather than Gustafsson.
“Just to clear up a couple things, people think we’re in contract negotiations with Jon Jones – we’re not,” said White. “Jon Jones still has five fights left on his contract. So what we’re doing right now is trying to get him to sign the bout agreement for Gustafsson. He doesn’t want to fight Gustafsson. … Lorenzo and I have a meeting with Jones on Thursday to get him to sign the bout agreement, and he’s asking to fight Cormier instead.”
Cormier recently said if Jones refused to fight Gustafsson, then he would be happy to fight “The Mauler” for an interim title.
The UFC publicly announced that Gustafsson had signed the bout in a clear attempt to push Jones to sign. Now, on UFC.com, the pressure was ratcheted up. White said if Jones doesn’t sign the contract, who knows, Cormier vs. Gustafsson could be the move.