Anthony Johnson could be last man standing between Jon Jones and heavyweight

Anthony Johnson’s work in Stockholm wasn’t so much a thing of beauty as it was of destruction. The interloper was cracking mountain faces with those punches he was throwing. Gustafsson, who had come in planning to work the delicacies of the striking game, was off his moorings from the first jab. All it took was an accidental eye-poke to signal the end. Right after that Johnson landed a right hand that sent Gustafsson’s title shot fleeting like a genie from the bottle, while 30,000 people at the Tele2 Arena jumped in unison to try and catch its tail.

Talk about a cold Sunday morning in Sweden.

And now it’s Johnson who will be facing Jon Jones. That fight will probably happen in July. The Great Resurrection Story versus the Greatest Going. Once again we are reminded that the fight game broadcasts from left field.

Who would have thought this was coming in the fall of 2011, back when Jones was defending his title against Quinton Jackson and Johnson was fighting the undersized Charlie Brenneman in a welterweight bout a week later? That version of “Rumble,” the incredibly shrinking one who was shedding years off his life in the sauna, wasn’t even considered a legitimate threat to Georges St-Pierre. Now it’s all different. The Johnson of 2015 is an immoveable hulk with enough power to make the chandeliers quake from impact reverberation.

You know what? That kind of power, together with Johnson’s renewal, makes for a damn fine title fight.

Of course, the easy comparisons between Johnson and Jones will fall to how they fared against Gustafsson. In Jones’ epic title defense against him in 2013, he needed five full rounds of plumbing his own depths to get his arm raised. Afterwards, he went to a Toronto hospital looking like a man who just experienced a stampede. Johnson needed just 125 seconds to dispose of Gustafsson. He came out in near mint condition.

Gustafsson’s showcase fight not only became Johnson’s, but Johnson made it feel a transatlantic statement.

Does it mean anything that he had an easier go against Gustafsson than Jones did? Maybe only to Vegas oddsmakers, who deal in perception. It is likely that Johnson will be less of an underdog against Jones than he was against Phil Davis at UFC 172, or than he was against Gustafsson at UFC on FOX 14. His performance against Gustafsson — in a set of circumstances stacked against him — jumped some stock. That’s a hell of a lot of momentum coming at Jones.

And really, we might want to soak this next one in.

It’s an old thought, one that gains and loses import with every passing day, but seriously…this could be the last compelling challenge for Jones as the UFC’s light heavyweight champion. With Johnson rerouting Gustafsson back to the old drawing board, there just isn’t much left in the way of challengers at 205 pounds. Davis, who for so long has been the “just wait” guy in the division, dropped an unimaginative decision to Ryan Bader in Stockholm. Bader isn’t going to get a rematch with Jones. Davis, whose career is playing out in pending, simply can’t get to him.

Consider, too, that Jones’ last two challenges came from other orbits — Cormier from heavyweight, and now Johnson who split time between welterweight, middleweight and the more unfortunate catchweight. That alone tells you the cupboards at 205 just aren’t exactly replenishing themselves. Jones has already defeated Rashad Evans, Gustafsson, Jackson, Glover Teixeira and Mauricio Rua, as well as Vitor Belfort and Cormier.

Unless the UFC wants to begin recycling narratives, Johnson might be the last man standing between Jones and his long-anticipated move to heavyweight — and not just because of Jones’ personal goals and preferences, but for the sake of reopening up the division. To get things moving along again. To once again add the dimension of hope, the thing that Jones began sapping from it the moment he took the belt from “Shogun” in March 2011. With Jones at the top, it’s become a land of gatekeepers. Those gatekeepers are devouring themselves.

This phenomena is what Dana White refers to as “cleaning out the division.” It’s a nearly impossible trick to pull off. But Jones really is at the cusp of doing just that.

The one person who can shake things up is, of all people, “Rumble” Johnson, who seems to have come back from his stint with the WSOF hell-bent on shaking things up. The Blackzilians fighter has been nothing short of dominant since losing to Belfort at UFC 142. He’s been actualized in his more natural frame. All that early plastic-suit stuff was a masquerade. As the Gustafsson fight proved, nobody’s walking over Anthony Johnson since he quit killing himself to fight.

And if Jones happens to do so, hey, it might be time for him to keep walking to the pool of new challenges at heavyweight. It’s Rumble’s Second Coming against Jones’ Possible Going.

Which, as mentioned earlier, makes for a damn fine title fight.

Anthony Johnson’s work in Stockholm wasn’t so much a thing of beauty as it was of destruction. The interloper was cracking mountain faces with those punches he was throwing. Gustafsson, who had come in planning to work the delicacies of the striking game, was off his moorings from the first jab. All it took was an accidental eye-poke to signal the end. Right after that Johnson landed a right hand that sent Gustafsson’s title shot fleeting like a genie from the bottle, while 30,000 people at the Tele2 Arena jumped in unison to try and catch its tail.

Talk about a cold Sunday morning in Sweden.

And now it’s Johnson who will be facing Jon Jones. That fight will probably happen in July. The Great Resurrection Story versus the Greatest Going. Once again we are reminded that the fight game broadcasts from left field.

Who would have thought this was coming in the fall of 2011, back when Jones was defending his title against Quinton Jackson and Johnson was fighting the undersized Charlie Brenneman in a welterweight bout a week later? That version of “Rumble,” the incredibly shrinking one who was shedding years off his life in the sauna, wasn’t even considered a legitimate threat to Georges St-Pierre. Now it’s all different. The Johnson of 2015 is an immoveable hulk with enough power to make the chandeliers quake from impact reverberation.

You know what? That kind of power, together with Johnson’s renewal, makes for a damn fine title fight.

Of course, the easy comparisons between Johnson and Jones will fall to how they fared against Gustafsson. In Jones’ epic title defense against him in 2013, he needed five full rounds of plumbing his own depths to get his arm raised. Afterwards, he went to a Toronto hospital looking like a man who just experienced a stampede. Johnson needed just 125 seconds to dispose of Gustafsson. He came out in near mint condition.

Gustafsson’s showcase fight not only became Johnson’s, but Johnson made it feel a transatlantic statement.

Does it mean anything that he had an easier go against Gustafsson than Jones did? Maybe only to Vegas oddsmakers, who deal in perception. It is likely that Johnson will be less of an underdog against Jones than he was against Phil Davis at UFC 172, or than he was against Gustafsson at UFC on FOX 14. His performance against Gustafsson — in a set of circumstances stacked against him — jumped some stock. That’s a hell of a lot of momentum coming at Jones.

And really, we might want to soak this next one in.

It’s an old thought, one that gains and loses import with every passing day, but seriously…this could be the last compelling challenge for Jones as the UFC’s light heavyweight champion. With Johnson rerouting Gustafsson back to the old drawing board, there just isn’t much left in the way of challengers at 205 pounds. Davis, who for so long has been the “just wait” guy in the division, dropped an unimaginative decision to Ryan Bader in Stockholm. Bader isn’t going to get a rematch with Jones. Davis, whose career is playing out in pending, simply can’t get to him.

Consider, too, that Jones’ last two challenges came from other orbits — Cormier from heavyweight, and now Johnson who split time between welterweight, middleweight and the more unfortunate catchweight. That alone tells you the cupboards at 205 just aren’t exactly replenishing themselves. Jones has already defeated Rashad Evans, Gustafsson, Jackson, Glover Teixeira and Mauricio Rua, as well as Vitor Belfort and Cormier.

Unless the UFC wants to begin recycling narratives, Johnson might be the last man standing between Jones and his long-anticipated move to heavyweight — and not just because of Jones’ personal goals and preferences, but for the sake of reopening up the division. To get things moving along again. To once again add the dimension of hope, the thing that Jones began sapping from it the moment he took the belt from “Shogun” in March 2011. With Jones at the top, it’s become a land of gatekeepers. Those gatekeepers are devouring themselves.

This phenomena is what Dana White refers to as “cleaning out the division.” It’s a nearly impossible trick to pull off. But Jones really is at the cusp of doing just that.

The one person who can shake things up is, of all people, “Rumble” Johnson, who seems to have come back from his stint with the WSOF hell-bent on shaking things up. The Blackzilians fighter has been nothing short of dominant since losing to Belfort at UFC 142. He’s been actualized in his more natural frame. All that early plastic-suit stuff was a masquerade. As the Gustafsson fight proved, nobody’s walking over Anthony Johnson since he quit killing himself to fight.

And if Jones happens to do so, hey, it might be time for him to keep walking to the pool of new challenges at heavyweight. It’s Rumble’s Second Coming against Jones’ Possible Going.

Which, as mentioned earlier, makes for a damn fine title fight.