Johnny Walker vs Alexander Gustafson ???

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Walker has a potentially huge future, but despite his most recent loss Gus may be too big a step. Could walker win?  Sure.  But Gus could also end him violently, so now this young prospect gets destroyed by a guy that the champ just beat bad.  Not a great look imo

You’d think they’d want someone more seasoned like Dominick Reyes to take that challenge.

Dayum, that is definitely biting off more than he can chew in my opinion. I'm very excited about this kid, but I have always loved me some Gus on fight night!

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Ya dig?

A post shared by Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) on Mar 4, 2019 at 7:26pm PST

CRE - You'd think they'd want someone more seasoned like Dominick Reyes to take that challenge.

Reyes is fighting Oezdemir in 10 days.

This is a gamble because if Gus beats him then what? It would be a hard sell for Gus vs Jones 3.

stcpm02 -

Walker has a potentially huge future, but despite his most recent loss Gus may be too big a step. Could walker win?  Sure.  But Gus could also end him violently, so now this young prospect gets destroyed by a guy that the champ just beat bad.  Not a great look imo

This. UFC is gonna wanna bring Walker up slowly, he’s a huge prospect but the UFC has made the mistake of making prospects fight big time vets too soon in their careers and then it backfires. Look what happened with Yair vs Frankie, or Choi vs Swanson. Legit prospects who got derailed, they’re gonna want to be careful with Walker because of the potential draw he can be.

Then again I feel like fighting Marreta, Blachowicz, or even Manuwa might be good next steps for him.

Walker only rose two spots in the rankings this week. I can't imagine why they'd put him in against the #2 guy so soon, even if I believe he has a great chance of doing well. Maybe just put him on the main card of an upcoming event against a solid guy in the range of #8 to #12?  

This week's rankings, along with changes from last ranking:

Jon Jones - champ

1 Daniel Cormier 

2 Alexander Gustafsson

3 Thiago Santos Rank increased by 1

4 Anthony Smith Rank decreased by 1

5 Jan Blachowicz

6 Volkan Oezdemir Rank decreased by 1

7 Corey Anderson

8 Dominick Reyes

9 Ilir Latifi

10 Jimi Manuwa

11 Glover Teixeira

12 Ovince Saint Preux

13 Johnny Walker Rank increased by 2

14 Mauricio Rua  Rank decreased by 1

15 Misha Cirkunov Rank decreased by 1

^ Manuwa and Latifi appear to be the only two between 8 and 12 who don't have fights booked right now.

Let him be the first guy to knock out Rockhold at light heavyweight