Top 5 Stories of the Week

---

After some posturing, negotiation and maybe even a little misdirection, Jon Jones-Alexander Gustafsson 2 is finally a done deal.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship announced on June 5 that the Jones-Gustafsson rematch will take place at UFC 178 this fall. The pay-per-view event is expected to take place on Sept. 27 in Toronto, although the location and venue could potentially change.

After what appeared to be plenty of back-and-forth between Jones and the Las Vegas-based promotion, everything was resolved when the light heavyweight champion and his team met with UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta and UFC President Dana White in Las Vegas.

“There was never an issue with a contract,” Jones told UFC.com. “I was traveling and finally got to Vegas and got to talk with Dana and Lorenzo.”

Prior to those negotiations, White had said that Jones requested to fight Daniel Cormier instead of Gustafsson.

“I think Cormier is the tougher fighter, but the fans want to see me fight Gustafsson. There was never an issue with taking the Gustafsson fight,” Jones said. “The issue was that my brother is getting married in July, and I would have preferred a later date. I didn’t want to go this early and I would have preferred to go later in October or November. It is what it is. We have a date now. This was a personal decision for me. I will be at my brother’s wedding and have a proper training camp.”

Jones faced the most difficult test of his career in defeating Gustafsson via unanimous decision at UFC 165 in September. The light heavyweights have competed once since then, with Jones scoring a dominant triumph over Glover Teixeira at UFC 172 and Gustafsson stopping Jimi Manuwa via second-round TKO in March.

The stories of interest on Sherdog.com this week:

THEY MEET AGAIN

NOT SO PHENOMENAL

JOINING FORCES

SWEET DREAMS

EASY TARGET