During yesterday’s UFC on FOX pre-fight press conference, UFC President Dana White stated that the winner of tomorrow night’s light heavyweight bout between Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Alexander Gustafsson will secure a title shot. 
“Unless there’s some crazy (explective) that happens, which always does,” White said. “Other than that, the winner of this fight will get the next shot.”
Current light heavyweight champion Jon Jones is currently finishing up the filming of the next season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” which he is coaching against Chael Sonnen and the two will fight on April 27th in New Jersey.
In the build up to tomorrow night’s fight, Gustafsson has said that he plans to ask for a title shot once he defeats the former light heavyweight champion.
Gustafsson (14-1) has won five of his six UFC fights, with the only lost coming against Phil Davis in his second UFC bout. Since that fight, he has won four in a row with three of the victories coming by stoppage. In his last fight, he headlined his first UFC fight card against Thiago Silva and won by unanimous decision.
On the other side, Rua (21-6) has already took on Jones and was defeated by TKO in the third round and recently turned down a chance to rematch Jones on short notice at UFC 152. He has gone 3-3 in his last six and will be looking for back to back wins tomorrow night for the first time since 2009.
With Jones not making his next title defense for five months, it would seem unlikely that the UFC will hold the winner of the fight out that long, but crazier things have happened.