VIDEO | Steroids or Not, Alexander Gustafsson Wants to Fight ‘Real Champion’ Jon Jones

As Volkan Oezdemir prepares for his title shot against Daniel Cormier, Alexander Gustafsson has just had a successful surgery and has returned to training. When he comes back, he wants another chance at UFC light heavyweight gold against whoever wins, but there is one thing he wants even more. Back at UFC 165, Gustafsson put on a Fight of the Night performance against Jon Jones, putting the GOAT candidate in more danger than he’s ever faced in his career. Regardless of what Jones was on or wasn’t on, Gustafsson wants to run it back again with Jones to find out who is better once and for all.

“…A fight is a fight, right?” – Gustafsson after Helwani asked if he still wants to fight Jon Jones even if he’s (allegedly) on PEDs. #TheMMAHour pic.twitter.com/UmA4jfYLzX

— Justin Golightly (@SecretMovesMMA) December 11, 2017

“[Daniel Cormier] has the belt, and I want to fight Cormier again for sure. I want the belt. But the real champion is Jon Jones, of course, because he has been destroying everybody in the division. Everything that he’s done, nobody has done it before. So to me he is the real champion, but I do accept DC (as) a champion too. He is a good guy, good fighter and the only guy he lost to is Jon Jones. He is the real deal and champion material. I wasn’t shocked [at Jon Jones’ anti-doping violation], I wasn’t surprised. I feel sorry for him. What can I say? I just feel sorry for him. New things come up all the time and I am not surprised at all. I just feel sorry for him. It’s bad for him, it’s bad for the sport. Look, what he did to DC. He’s a beast and nobody has done what he’s done. He’s just getting caught over and over again. It must be something wrong there. You just don’t do that if you…he’s just making wrong decision all the time and I feel sorry for him, basically.” — Alexander Gustafsson speaking on The MMA Hour via MMA Mania.

With the future of Jon Jones up in the air until his pending day in court, Alexander Gustafsson may have to settle for either a rematch with Daniel Cormier or testing the crown of the King of Sweden against Volkan Oezdemir. Either way, those are both awesome fights. Cormier is expected to defend his title against Volkan Oezdemir on January 20th, 2018 at UFC 220. While it’s not official yet, the fight will most likely be the co-main event underneath Stipe Miocic’s title defense against Francis Ngannou. 

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 12/12/2017.