Author: By Michael DiSanto

Kenny Florian might be the best 155-pound fighter in the world who hasn’t yet won a UFC championship.

Gray Maynard could certainly take umbrage with that statement, but he will get his opportunity to eliminate his name from the list of eligible “never won a title” fighters on Saturday night. I have a sneaking suspicion that he will do just that, too. But I digress.

Florian has beaten a who’s who of the UFC lightweight division since his run on the inaugural season of “The Ultimate Fighter.” Sam Stout. Joe Lauzon. Roger Huerta. Clay Guida. Takanori Gomi. Those are just a few of the lightweight contenders he has conquered over the last few years. Unfortunately for “KenFlo,” his inability to get over the championship hump against Sean Sherk and BJ Penn, followed by his loss in a title eliminator to current number one contender Maynard, left his short-term chance at winning a championship right down there with the Boston Red Sox. And they aren’t even in the postseason.

It suffices to say that KenFlo needed to do something dramatic to jumpstart his golden dreams following his decisive loss to Maynard. He did just that about four months ago by dropping to the then-newly added 145-pound division.

A leaner, meaner version of the lightweight elite stepped into the cage on June 11, 2011 to face highly touted Diego Nunes in his featherweight debut. Florian was as advertised in that bout, scoring a solid unanimous decision win and earning his third opportunity to win UFC gold, though this time, as a featherweight.

It sounds like the perfect plan. Florian dominated at lightweight, but just couldn’t take it to that next level. Never a large 155-pounder by any means, he drops 10 pounds south, where he will surely be even more effective. The first bout suggested that to be the case, excusing, of course, his slight issue with his wind, which is very normal the first time someone drops to a new weight class. Ken-Flo’s championship shortcomings will soon be a thing of the past, as he fulfills his potential by winning the UFC Featherweight Championship this Saturday night.

It all sounds good, right. But, alas, there is one small issue with such an ending. To become champion, Florian must defeat one of the most dominant fighters in all of mixed martial arts. His name is Jose Aldo.

Aldo has been a household name among hardcore fans since his fighting debut on U.S. soil back on June 1, 2008. But he did not arrive in the WEC amidst great expectations. Granted, he held an impressive 10-1 professional record at the time, including three straight wins, heading into his bout with Alexandre Nogueira, a well regarded fighter in his own right. It was the way that he won the bout that left an impression on everyone watching.

Aldo didn’t just stop Nogueira with elbows. He did it in particularly sudden and emphatic fashion. The win sparked a six-fight knockout streak that saw him destroy future TUF12 winner Jonathan Brookins, score one of the most spectacular knockouts in combat sports history against Cub Swanson and win the WEC title by stopping the ultra-tough Mike Brown.

Three fights into his reign as champion, Aldo seems as dominant as ever. Sure, he struggled pretty badly late in his UFC debut against Mark Hominick in April. Fair enough. But Aldo was battling an illness during camp that compounded the normally tough issue of cutting the requisite weight, while still maintaining peak cardiovascular conditioning. And, at the end of the day, a win is a win. For the Brazilian, it was his 12th consecutive victory.

He hopes to make it lucky 13 by disposing of Florian in the main event of UFC 136 this Saturday night.

This fight is all about game plan and execution for Florian, focusing on being very tactical on the feet in search of a takedown where he can leverage his superior Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu skills. The southpaw is one of the more technically sound strikers in the UFC’s lighter weight classes. He is a master at maintaining proper foot position, and using that position to effectively strike, without taking much in the way of return fire.

Proper position for a southpaw is keeping his lead right foot on the outside of his opponent’s lead left. This creates the optimal throwing lane for a straight left hand. It also puts him in better position to clean up that strike with a left hook, fire inside and outside kicks to his opponent’s lead left leg, hammer kicks to the body, and, of course, come up the middle with a flying knee.

Sounds easy, right? For a tactician like KenFlo it almost always is easy. Indeed, I can only think of one example where he was outclassed on the feet. It was his 2009 loss to Penn. On that night, Penn made masterful use of a jackhammer jab, good one-two combinations and plenty of lead right hands. Penn is simply a superior standup fighter, so Florian didn’t have much of a chance, outside scoring with one of his patented cutting elbows or a wild, one-punch knockout, of winning the fight on the feet.

Aldo is an even better striker than Penn. He is not better in a technical sense. But he is far more explosive, and he is actually more aggressive than Penn with his strikes. Aldo is a good counterstriker, but he is even more ferocious when he is taking the lead. What that means is that Florian needs to get off first. He needs to do that by using good lateral movement, circling more often to his own right than his left, popping the jab and looking for opportunities to land a left down the middle.

Florian needs to make sure not to stand still, unless he is striking. He needs to present a moving target to the champion at all other times. When he does pull the trigger, he needs to fire two- and three-piece combinations. Punches in bunches, particularly from a sniper like Florian, are more difficult to counter than single shots. Immediately upon ending his combination, he needs to either get out of Dodge or step inside for the clinch.

Aldo is a beast in the clinch, but so is Florian. I’m not sure which man is physically stronger, but I’m not counting out the challenger any time soon. He has been fighting bigger, stronger lightweights for years. Facing Aldo, even though he is probably the biggest featherweight in the division, should still seem like somewhat of a reprieve in the strength category.

Florian should be mindful of avoiding the Thai plumb in the clinch, because Aldo has sick knee strikes. To do that, he should quickly force the champion to the cage once in the clinch, ala Randy Couture, and use his dirty boxing to keep things rough. Florian is very effective at infighting, particularly with those elbows. All it takes is one slicing elbow strike and the fight could be over due to cuts, even against a standup monster like Aldo.

Elbows are great, but Florian’s real focus in the clinch should be taking the fight to the ground. Aldo’s biggest weakness is his inability to mount an effective offense from his back. We saw that play itself out in his fight against Mark Hominick just a few months ago. Hominick scored takedowns in the championship rounds, and Aldo couldn’t do anything from his back—nothing at all. He didn’t defend well, and he certainly did not pose any semblance of a submission threat.

Florian is a bigger problem from the top position than Hominick. If he finds himself on top of Aldo, he should hammer away with elbows and punches in search of a stoppage. The challenger should not go completely crazy because keeping the fight on the ground is as important as scoring damage while it is there, but he should be very aggressive with his ground-and-pound attacks. Putting a beating on his foe will open up opportunities for submissions because Aldo will make mistakes from his back while defending strikes.

Trust me on this one. If Florian can score even one takedown, he can very easily win this fight—very easily. If he scores multiple takedowns, he quickly goes from healthy underdog to major favorite, in my mind. If he can avoid getting knocked out and scores at least one takedown in the majority of the rounds, I see him as basically a lock to win.

Aldo’s keys to this fight are to find a rhythm by staying active and looking for any opportunity to explode in search of a knockout. In other words, stand and bang. That is his gameplan each and every fight. I don’t see any reason to change it up on Saturday night.

The Brazilian is the most explosive striker in the 145-pound division, bar none. He has a wide variety of knockout-worthy strikes, including straight right hands, left hooks, leg kicks (yes, you read that correctly, he can stop any opponent with a series of leg kicks), high kicks and flying knees. He is a highly skilled mixed martial artist, who has a black belt in BJJ to go along with his masterful Muay Thai. Yet, his unquenchable thirst for crowd-pleasing knockouts causes him to fight with gladiatorial flair, rather than technical brilliance, most of the time.

The one exception to that statement is Aldo’s use of leg kicks. This guy is a true technician with that particular strike. For example, when he faced Urijah Faber, a former elite-level collegiate wrestler who definitely needed to take him down in order to win, he put on a clinic on how to control the distance with insanely fast, thudding kicks to Faber’s lead leg and body. Those strikes were placed with surgical precision, and they quickly sapped “The California Kid” of his trademark explosiveness and set the fight at a good spacious distance, which, in combination, meant the fight would remain on the feet.

Aldo should do the same thing against Florian. Kicks to the legs and body are his friend in this fight. It is a great way to sap the challenger of any strength advantage that he might have coming into the fight. More importantly, the kicks will set the distance and help ensure that the fight remains standing. Florian is not an elite wrestler. He does not have a great shot from the outside. His best way to score a takedown is from the clinch. If Aldo can keep the fight unfolding at a distance by hammering kicks to the legs and body, it will be very tough for Florian to find the clinch and take down the champion.

My guess is that both men will be looking to finish the fight early and will take chances to do just that, so this has all the makings of a great fight. I really believe that Florian is going to be the toughest test of Aldo’s featherweight career to date. He is a very live underdog, but the smart money is on the champion. There is a reason this guy is considered one of the best fighters in the world, across all weight classes. Let’s see if he can live up to that praise one more time on Saturday night.

QUICK FACTS:

Jose Aldo
•    25 years old
•    5’7, 145 lbs
•    70-inch reach
•    19-1 overall (9-0 UFC/WEC)
•    12-fight winning streak
•    Last loss November 26, 2005
•    Lone career loss by submission
•    3 of 8 WEC fights won Knockout of the Night
•    Fight of the Night in UFC debut
•    3 successful defenses of UFC/WEC title
•    Current layoff is 161 days
•    Longest layoff of career is 347 days

Kenny Florian
•    35 years old
•    5’10, 145 lbs
•    74-inch reach
•    16-5 overall (12-4 UFC)
•    1-0 as a featherweight
•    3-2 in last 5 fights
•    8-2 in last 10 fights
•    0-2 in UFC title fights
•    Last loss August 28, 2010
•    2 UFC post-fight honors (Submission of the Night, Fight of the Night)
•    Current layoff is 119 days
•    Longest layoff of UFC career is 266 days

The UFC Bantamweight Championship is up for grabs for the third time since the promotion added the division to the roster late last year.

Dominick Cruz is the reigning champion. With wins over Urijah Faber, Brian Bowles, Joseph Benavidez and Scott Jorgensen, he is truly one of the elite fighters in the world, despite the fact that he is still a newcomer to UFC fans.

Demetrious Johnson is the challenger. Nonetheless, he is probably better known to UFC fans because he has already competed twice inside the Octagon, compared to just once for Cruz. In those two fights, Johnson toppled two of the division’s biggest names, Miguel Torres and Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto.

Whether or not fans recognize the names, this fight is must-see TV. Generally speaking, the bantamweights put on incredibly entertaining fights. It’s often like watching the Energizer Bunny fight his twin brother on fast forward. Cruz versus Johnson should be that plus a large dose of caffeine because these guys put the pedal to the metal once the action gets underway, and neither one stops until the bout has concluded, regardless of how long it lasts.

Cruz is a pretty straightforward fighter. He likes to mix wrestling and kickboxing, often equally willing to slug it out on the feet or take an opponent down and slug him on the ground. He isn’t really a submission guy. Just one of his 18 professional wins came by tap out. His blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu also isn’t going to scare anybody. That is about as novice as one would expect for a UFC champion.

Still, Cruz is far from a novice ground fighter. Sure, his lone career loss was by submission, but he was completely out on his feet, thanks to a perfectly executed knee strike, when he basically gave his neck to Faber, begging to be submitted. Other than that, Cruz hasn’t succumbed to any ground fighter’s attacks. So, one must assume that his submission defense is much better than that of a traditional blue belt. He might not surprise anyone with a flying armbar, but I am quite sure that he knows how to defend one.

On paper, Johnson should be Cruz’s kryptonite. He is a very good wrestler with solid submission skills that have seen him end five of his career victories by tap out. Yet, Faber also fit that description, and most probably believe that Faber is both a better wrestler and better ground fighter than Johnson. Yet, he could not pass the Cruz test back in July.

In other words, I’m not sure that Johnson has the BJJ chops to catch Cruz in something, unless he first lands a fight-altering strike to scramble the champion’s wits. Granted, that is based in large part on how Cruz looked in his recent fight against Faber. That might not be a fair assessment. It is what it is.

I think Cruz will come out looking to stick and move, just like he did against Faber. Johnson will look to strike just long enough to set up a takedown. He wants no part of a slugfest with Cruz. I’m not suggesting that Cruz is a standup crusher. He is not. Then again, very few guys south of 155 pounds possess legitimate one-strike knockout power.

Instead, Cruz is a very good, technical striker. He strikes with incredible speed and uses very good footwork and lateral movement to keep his opponent off balance. He also frustrates his foes with shots thrown from unconventional angles and his constant herky-jerky motion.

Johnson cannot match him on the feet, so he should not try. He needs to take the fight to the place where Cruz is the least comfortable—on his back.

Easier said than done.

Again, Faber is one of the best wrestlers in the bantamweight division. Yet, he could not turn things into a grappling match with the champion. That doesn’t leave me feeling good about Johnson’s chances at accomplishing that goal, but it certainly can be done.

Cruz’s awkward standup style is predicated on the fact that he is a come-forward fighter. If Johnson can get him to move backward by applying calculated pressure via a rapid, accurate jab, Cruz should start moving backward. Johnson can use that opportunity to change levels and shoot under his opponent’s counters or high guard. Cruz has a great sprawl, but nobody has a great sprawl when moving backward while trying to counter or cover up.

Once the fight hits the ground, Johnson should use punches and elbows to open the door for submissions. Cruz is very good at scrambling back to his feet, so working from a pure grappling perspective isn’t a great idea. Johnson needs to force the champion to defend strikes, which will preclude him from effectively scrambling. If Cruz spends three or four minutes of a round on his back, one must assume that the blue belt will make a mistake that Johnson can capitalize on.

Then again, maybe not. But who really cares? Any time Johnson spends in the top position is time spent winning the fight. Time spent on the feet likely means time spent losing the fight.

Like the co-featured bout between Pat Barry and Stefan Struve, this bout is all about where the fight unfolds. Cruz has the advantage on the feet. Johnson has the advantage on the ground. The man who dictates where the action unfolds more often than not will win the fight, absent someone capitalizing on a silly, fight-stopping mistake.

I will admit that I was not a Cruz believer heading in to his July bout with Faber. I’m a believer now, particularly after re-watching that fight a handful of times. Cruz is an amazingly effective fighter, one who should give Johnson loads of trouble.

QUICK FACTS:

Dominick Cruz
•    26 years old
•    5’8, 135
•    68-inch reach
•    18-1 overall (8-1 UFC/WEC)
•    5-0 in last 5
•    9-1 in last 10
•    Currently riding a 9-fight winning streak
•    Lone professional loss by submission
•    Fight of the Night twice
•    Current layoff is 91 days
•    Longest layoff of career is 364 days

Demetrious Johnson
•    25 years old
•    5’3, 135
•    66-inch reach
•    14-1 overall (4-1 UFC/WEC)
•    4-1 in last 5
•    9-1 in last 10
•    Currently riding a 4-fight winning streak
•    Lone professional loss by decision
•    Current layoff is 126 days
•    Longest layoff of career is 203 days

I wonder if Pat Barry can punch Stefan Struve in the head without leaving his feet. I know it is physically possible, if the two are standing right next to each other. I’m talking about landing a jab, right hand or left hook when the two are fighting from a normal striking distance.

Better yet, I wonder if Barry, who is one of the better kickboxers in the UFC, can actually kick Struve in the head—standing still or jumping.

Those questions and more will be answered on Saturday night when one of the UFC’s shortest heavyweight competitors faces its tallest in a fight that may seem on the surface to be a bit gimmicky, but could prove to be the most exciting bout on the Versus telecast.

Barry, who stands 5’11 when wearing combat boots, is one of the division’s most talented kickboxers. He mixes his punches and kicks as well, if not better, than any heavyweight in the world. He is equally effective striking from an orthodox or southpaw stance. And he can knock out any man with a single shot delivered with either fist or either foot.

That is the good. Of course, with just about any fighter not named Anderson Silva or Georges St-Pierre, there is also some bad.

Barry’s game is really limited to the standup realm. He has worked hard on his wrestling over the last couple of years, training at the DeathClutch gym with Brock Lesnar, Marty Morgan and crew. But Barry is still pretty far behind his brethren when it comes to takedowns and grappling. He isn’t a fish out of water when the fight hits the ground, but he isn’t comfortable, either.

That is normally a major problem when facing a ground specialist like Struve, who just so happens to be every inch of 6’11 tall. Keep in mind that the Dutch fighter has nearly three times as many submissions as knockouts in his professional career. Yet, Struve has shown a recent penchant for slugging it out on the feet, and that should lead to disastrous results against an apex striker like Barry.

If Struve can get the fight to the ground, Barry will instantly look to scramble to his feet. He has no choice but to do that. The difference in length of their respective torsos means that Barry’s guard will be basically useless in stopping hard ground-and-pound attacks. Since Barry has no threatening offensive guard skills, particularly against a submission wizard like Struve, any time spent on his back will be time spent losing the fight.

Things probably won’t be much safer for Barry if he ends up on the top position. Absent a knockdown, where Struve’s wits will be scrambled, he should be able to control Barry from his guard almost as well as he can control him from the top position. Their respective torso length has the exact opposite effect when Struve is on his back. He can use his legs to control Barry’s hips to the point where the former K-1 kickboxer will basically have to slap with his punches to reach Struve’s head, unless he can stack up his foe. And stacking him in the guard opens the door for armbars and triangle chokes.

So, this should be the classic kickboxer versus standup fighter battle, right? I doubt it.

As mentioned, Struve has a real thirst for thrilling the crowd with slugfests. The guy seems to engage in an entertaining back-and-forth brawl each time he steps into the cage. My guess is that he will come out looking to use his nearly nine-inch reach advantage to pop Barry with jabs and lead left hooks. I also think he will throw a tremendous volume of leg kicks, front kicks and kicks to the head, since he probably has no fear whatsoever of being taken down.

If the two had equal standup skills, then hammering away from the outside would be an excellent tactic for Struve, just like it was for the taller Jon Jones against Quinton Jackson last weekend. The problem, of course, is the two do not have equal standup skills. Barry is on a completely different level when it comes to technique, speed, power and chin.

If Struve tries to hunt and peck on the outside, Barry will cut off the cage, use feints to encourage his foe to lead, and then slip and explode off his misses. Once on the inside, Struve’s height will actually work against him. He won’t be able to generate any real torque on his strikes, other than knees, which he really hasn’t shown much of an affinity for up to this point in his career. And he won’t be able to effectively counter with those long limbs. It will be all about clinches and throws, pulling guard, or getting out of Dodge once Barry gets inside. Otherwise, he will get knocked out.

Barry’s short, powerful limbs and ability to really throw shots from his core will let him land with uninhibited power on the inside. He should completely forget takedowns. Struve will dominate him on the mat if he is able to quickly work to his guard. His focus should be firing power shots with reckless abandon, if and when he gets to the inside.

Barry did just that against fellow former kickboxer Cheick Kongo in his last fight. Of course, he got knocked out, after almost knocking out Kongo with a barrage of punches. Barry should forget about that fight. Struve is not Kongo. Not by a long shot. Kongo is a savage power puncher. Struve is a technician on the feet. Savages can bust Barry’s beard. Technicians cannot.

Another key to victory for Barry is unadulterated use of leg kicks. Not the kind that some fighters use to establish distance or score points. Barry wants to use the kind that resembles Albert Pujols swinging a baseball bat. You know, leg kicks dripping with bad intentions.

Barry has the best leg kicks in the UFC, bar none. Yeah, I know. Jose Aldo is pretty dangerous with that particular strike in his own right. But he is no Pat Barry.

Barry won three of his first four professional fights with leg kicks, including his UFC debut. A beanstalk like Struve is the perfect target for his vicious leg kicks. Granted, many fighters worried about getting taken down shy away from that particular type of strike, but those guys aren’t Barry. They don’t fire leg kicks like he does. And Struve is not a dominant wrestler by any means.

As mentioned, Struve’s game plan should be singularly focused on getting the fight to the ground. Sure, he can score on the outside, but he has to be perfect in his execution if he wants to remain conscious after engaging in a standup contest with Barry. He can get the fight to the ground by smothering Barry and tripping him. He should look to smother Barry by trying to bait his opponent into throwing wild, leaping lead hooks. Feints are a good way to get that result.

But again, stepping inside comes with a severe potential price. It means risking a right or left hand bomb to the jaw. Yet, I don’t really see any other way for him to safely score a takedown. Shooting from a distance isn’t Struve’s game, and it is also a great way to eat a shin to the jaw.

He can try to use the jab to back Barry to the fence, where stepping inside for a clinch is much less dangerous compared to doing that in the center of the cage. If the jab is sharp, quick and accurate, that could be an effective approach. If he misses, however, he has to be prepared to try and catch Barry coming in with a right hand. Otherwise, it could be lights out.

All the above may go out the window if either man is still affected by the result of his last fight. Barry and Struve might be physical and stylistic opposites, but they suffered the same fate in their respective previous bout. Both got knocked out.

I’ve written it dozens of times. It is impossible to predict how a man will react after being on the wrong end of a jaw-dropping knockout. The Kongo fight was the first Barry has experienced that. He responded by giving an interview backstage while eating a slice of pizza like it was any other normal Saturday night. A slice of pizza! I don’t know if that means it was no big deal to Barry or if he was in shock. Struve hopes it is the latter.

 Travis Browne’s win over Struve was actually the second time in his UFC career that the Dutchman was folded like a lawn chair. The last time it happened, courtesy of Roy Nelson, he embarked on a two-fight winning streak. Can he do that again? Will those two knockout losses, plus the 54-second knockout he suffered from Junior Dos Santos in his UFC debut, start to permanently soften his chin? Barry certainly hopes to force an answer to that one.

Will Struve pull a Jones and control the action from the outside? Will he get his shorter foe to the ground?

Will Barry be able to mount an effective offense on the feet against a guy a full foot taller? Can he even reach his opponent’s chin outside of phone-booth range? Will he fully utilize low kicks?

Are both men fully recovered (mentally and/or physically) from their previous bout? Will the loss result in hesitation?

Can Barry punch Struve in the face without jumping? Can he kick him in the head? How many times will Struve kick over Barry’s head?

Like I said, those questions and more will be answered on Saturday night.

JONES LIVES UP TO THE HYPE

Jon Jones said that he wanted to be the first man to finish Quinton “Rampage” Jackson inside the Octagon. Mission accomplished.

Jones undressed Rampage in Denver, Colorado. He picked apart the former undisputed champion on the feet with an ever-changing stance, using a plethora of kicks, both high and low, and punches from well outside of Rampage’s striking range. He also controlled the action on the ground, ultimately winning by rear naked choke.

Honestly, I’m not sure what Jones could have done better. Other than a one-punch knockout, I’m not sure what he else he can do to show people that he is definitely the best in the world at his weight. It was a virtuoso performance. What else can I say?

Rashad Evans is next up for the champ. I will break down that fight in detail in the days leading up to the bout, but Evans presents some unique challenges for Jones. First, his wrestling may very well force Jones to answer the question of his ability to fight effectively from his back. Second, there is probably no fighter in the world who knows Jones’ strengths and weaknesses better than Evans due to their history as training partners. Evans is an expert at game planning. That adds a special wrinkle to this matchup. Plus, there is real bad blood between these two, and that always makes for good TV.

 I cannot wait for that fight.

RAMPAGE NEEDS TO LOOK INTO THE MIRROR

Rampage was once the greatest 205-pounder in the world. He remains the only man in the world to simultaneously hold championships in two elite promotions at the same time. But I haven’t seen any improvement in Rampage’s game since entering the UFC. Actually, one could argue that he has regressed.

Rampage used to be known for his crazy powerful slams. If he got his hands on an opponent, they were going for a ride. His PRIDE knockouts often came from ground and pound, not boxing. In the UFC, he looks like a pure boxer. Why?

Rampage claims he was at his absolute best heading into this fight. I believe that he trained hard. I talked with people who saw him prepare for this fight. He was in great shape. He was sharp. Yet, he only looked to box.

I think that Rampage needs to get back to his wrestling if he wants to climb back up to the top of the 205-pound mountain. There aren’t many opponents who will stand there and let him get away with just boxing. He has a puncher’s chance against anyone, even if he does nothing but throw hands. Rampage is better than that. He is a mixed martial artist. He needs to look into the mirror and find those well rounded skills from his past. They are there. He just needs to find them.

KOS TAKES CARE OF BUSINESS

No disrespect to Matt Hughes. He is the greatest champion that the 170-pound division has ever seen. If Georges St-Pierre wants to take his place, he has much more work to do. But I thought Hughes stood little chance at defeating Josh Koscheck.

Stylistically, the fight was a nightmare for Hughes. Kos is better in every area, other than jiu-jitsu. And that is a maybe. Practically everyone, other than perhaps Hughes’ inner circle, knew what the former champion was in for once the cage door closed.

Hughes looked great on his feet early in the fight. He surprised me. He certainly surprised Kos. And he probably surprised just about everyone in the building. But once Kos realized that Hughes wasn’t going to lie down, he took care of business in a definitive manner.

Kos looked great in his return bout. I don’t care that it was the perfect matchup for him. Nobody knows how a fighter will react after a beating like he took from GSP. Kos has apparently taken it in stride and is back to business as usual. His Knockout of the Night effort against Hughes will forever grace his personal highlight reel.

HATS OFF TO THE CHAMP

History has shown us that few fighters pull a Chris Lytle and retire on a win against formidable competition. They are beaten from the sport much more frequently than not. If, in fact, this was Hughes’ final fight, it was fitting that that defeat came at the hands of Kos, who in many ways is Hughes 2.0. The AKA star is a fellow former Division I wrestler who likely viewed Hughes as one of his idols when entering the sport. Unlike Hughes, he entered the sport at a time when being extremely well rounded was not a championship luxury; it was a requisite for mere survival.

Again, assuming this was Hughes’ last fight in the UFC, everyone, including Kos, owes him a tip of the hat. Not just for his great career, but also because he did not hesitate to take a fight against a guy who was a stylistic nightmare for him. And he took it on short notice no less. That is what champions are made of. Hughes is, and always will be, a champion deep down in his DNA, regardless of his win-loss record over the past couple of years.

I’ll have more on Hughes’ glorious career soon. For now, it’s time to celebrate his opponent’s win. Kos is ready for whatever the division has to offer after a performance like that.

DÉJÀ VU FOR GOMI; DIAZ FINDS A HOME

Nate Diaz followed in his big brother’s footsteps by submitting Takanori Gomi in a career-defining performance. This fight proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Diaz needs to remain at lightweight. He is a big, strong, long lightweight. He looked incredible in every aspect of the fight in his Submission of the Night win over Gomi.

Diaz is a carbon copy of his brother, minus 15 pounds. His standup has grown leaps and bounds since coming into the UFC. And his jits continues to scream for head trainer Cesar Gracie to promote him to a black belt. I honestly believe that Diaz is on the cusp of coming into his own as a fighter. I think he will springboard this win into something special if he remains at lightweight—something he acknowledged was the right career move at the post-fight presser.

The only open question mark for Diaz is his ability to deal with truly dominant wrestlers, who also happen to have solid submission defense. Think Gray Maynard. Think Frankie Edgar. It just so happens that his brother shares the same weakness, if one can claim that Nick has any weaknesses at this point in his amazing career.

The UFC is filled with elite wrestlers. For the most part, Strikeforce is not. Nick did not have to prove that he had addressed this issue as he rose to superstardom. Nate won’t have that luxury. Nevertheless, I like his chances. Look for this young man to put himself into title contention no later than mid-2012. I’m a believer. Just like I’m a believer in his older brother.

HUNT FINALLY ROUNDS OUT HIS SKILLS

Mark Hunt won the K-1 Grand Prix in 2001. That means he is a striker on a completely different level from any other UFC heavyweight, in terms of accomplishments. Yet, he has always been a novice grappler. Hunt had five straight losses prior to his UFC debut. Four of them were by submission. Even otherworldly striker Alistair Overeem took this guy to the ground and looked for a submission, rather than stand and trade leather with this guy.

Hunt lost his UFC debut by submission. That was the sixth straight loss. To be honest, I thought he was finished as an elite-level fighter at that point. Anyone with novice grappling is not going to make a living in the UFC—period.

Then something inexplicable happened. Hunt figured out the grappling part of the game. Ben Rothwell is an extremely well rounded fighter, and Hunt dominated him on the feet and on the ground. His takedown defense, takedowns, scrambling and submission attempts carried the day. Thank you Ricardo Liborio.

Oh yes, Hunt easily outclassed his foe on the feet. Rothwell showed an absurd chin. It was tested again and again by one of the best strikers in the sport.  But he had nothing for Hunt on the feet.

I’ll tell you what. Hunt easily put on the best performance of his career on Saturday night. Yeah, I know I said the same thing about Diaz. It’s not hyperbole. It’s fact.

For the record, referee Adam Martinez’ decision to stand up the fight twice in the final round leaves me scratching my head. Hunt was in a dominant position each time. He was working his ground and pound. Why stand them up? The referee did not look to stand the fighters up earlier in the fight under very similar circumstances. I often wonder why referees apply a different standard to the final round, in terms of looking for an excuse to bring the fight back to the feet. The round is irrelevant. Good referees know that.

QUESTIONS ABOUND FOR BROWNE

Travis Browne is a heavy-handed, farm-boy strong, Island-tough fighter. He claimed heading into his bout with Rob Broughton that he was a top 10 heavyweight in the UFC. His performance did not live up to that claim.

If we are being honest with ourselves, Browne dominated the fight, but showed that he does not always show up in peak shape. Sure, the fight was held at altitude. Granted, athletes performing for the first time at altitude often gas very quickly, regardless of the sport. But Browne trained at altitude, so it should not have been an issue. That raises the question of whether he got himself into great shape. I wonder.

Browne has proven that he has the raw ability to be a real player in the UFC heavyweight division. No doubt about it. His complete domination of Broughton reminded us of that fact.  But he won’t rise to the level of the UFC elite if he can’t maintain his gas for 15 or 25 minutes. My guess is that he will learn from this fight and come out in his next bout ready to go the distance, if needed.

February 24, 2007.

That was the night that Nick Diaz transformed into the underground icon that he is today. He did it by engaging in one of the most entertaining fights of the year with Japanese superstar Takanori Gomi. Diaz won the bout with one of the most improbable submission holds in the sport. A gogoplata is a move where a fighter uses his shin to choke out his foe from the guard.

The move itself is a thing of lore, a move often practiced in the gym, particularly at Eddie Bravo’s Tenth Planet Jiu-Jitsu. But it is a move that is exceedingly difficult to pull off in competition. Diaz did it while getting punched in the face by his foe.

Despite the fact that the fight result was later switched to a no contest, Diaz officially came into his own as a professional fighter on that night, racking up an 11-1 record in his next 12 fights en route to winning and defending the Strikeforce Welterweight Championship.

Nick’s little brother Nate hopes to follow in his footsteps on Saturday night, when he gets his own crack at Gomi. For the younger Diaz, the fight has major career implications. He is riding a two-fight losing streak. Three in a row sometimes results in a trip to the unemployment line, so one could say that Diaz is fighting for his short-term future.

Gomi also has something to prove. The former PRIDE Lightweight Champion was once the biggest name in the sport among 155-pounders. But he is only 1-2 in his three-fight UFC career. A win over Diaz on Saturday night instantly reestablishes his relevance in the lightweight division.

There is no doubt how Diaz will approach the fight. He is a carbon copy of his brother. He looks to box from a southpaw stance with pawing hands disguising crisp, short punches from unorthodox angles. He drops his hands time and time again, seemingly sticking out his chin in taunting fashion, only to land a jab from his waist or a left hand thrown from the same position.

Diaz does not have knockout power. Not at all. He has only a single knockout on his resume over the last five-plus years. Granted, that one knockout was a jaw-dropping display of precision striking against the bigger Rory Markham. But that isn’t his forte. He instead uses his boxing to dare an opponent to take him down, so he can utilize his brown belt in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.

Make no mistake about it: Diaz would be a black belt under just about any other BJJ master. Cesar Gracie gives out black belts like the IRS does tax exemptions. He has sick submission skills. Seriously sick. Very few fighters want to test his guard game. Diaz will pound away at Gomi on the feet, hoping to either get taken down or find an opening for an easy takedown. He knows that on the ground, he will hold a major advantage in this fight.

That is not likely the case on while the fight is on the feet. Unlike Diaz, who boxes with “chip away at the mountain until it crumbles” style, Gomi is a home run hitter. He has no interest in the feeling out process. He is all about firing punches with bad intentions. Those who have long been watching the Japanese slugger know that he is the holder of the fastest knockout in PRIDE history—a six-second obliteration of Ralph Gracie in 2004.

Gomi mixes his boxing with good, solid wrestling skills. He isn’t a slick submission guy. Instead, his ground game focuses on ground and pound. And he fires his strikes on the ground with the same ferocity that he does on the feet, which is why there are a string of opponents he left lying on the canvas in an unconscious heap during his PRIDE fighting career.

Because of that, he won’t have any qualms taking down the younger Diaz brother on Saturday night. Gomi will be in major trouble if he tries to play the jits game with Diaz. He will be just fine if he keeps Diaz busy defending punches, rather than moving through his submission transitions.

If Gomi has a weakness on the feet, it is the fact that he tends to drop his head and loop his right hand when he really wants to load up, which is pretty often. Diaz can take advantage of that by identifying the strike, stepping to his left and firing a right uppercut. That sounds counterintuitive, but by stepping to his left, he can avoid the looping right while still keeping himself in good position to effectively counter with his right hand.

Diaz shouldn’t expect to score a knockout with his punches. As mentioned, he is not a true power puncher, and Gomi has a very good chin. Sure, he has been hurt several times during fights. But nobody has knocked him out in 40 professional fights, and it is unlikely that Diaz will be the first to do so on Saturday.

Instead, if Diaz can land a good right uppercut, he can clean it up with a left hand down the pipe. Those shots in combination should leave Gomi either wobbly and wide open for a takedown or desperate to score a takedown of his own. Either way, Diaz should then be able to take the fight to the ground, where he can utilize his biggest strength against Gomi’s biggest weakness.

Despite the fact that Gomi is a good wrestler with solid ground-and-pound game, his submission defense is less than stellar. Six of his eight professional losses (or five of seven, if you exclude Nick’s no contest) occurred by submission. That is a big hole in his game, one that Diaz can exploit.

Gomi’s game plan should be to avoid fighting in a phone booth with Diaz. Even though he is the bigger puncher, his foe will be the one who is much more comfortable fighting in close quarters. Diaz trains constantly with one of the best in-fighters in the sport—his brother. Gomi needs space to land his long, looping bombs. Plus, he needs space to avoid getting overwhelmed with Diaz’s swarming, pawing, non-stop punches.

Establishing space means using good lateral movement. Since Gomi is fighting a southpaw, he should circle to his own left behind the jab. The key is to position his lead left foot outside of Diaz’s lead right foot. By doing that, he creates a perfect throwing lane for his overhand right. He can lead with the punch, when the opportunity presents itself, since Diaz will have his hands at his sides most of the time.

That is the fight in a nutshell. I have no idea who is going to win this one. Gomi will have tremendous motivation to try and avenge his former loss to the Diaz family. Nate will have equal motivation to follow in his brother’s footsteps.

Whoever wins, this fight has “Fight of the Night” written all over it.

On March 19, 2011, Jon Jones became the youngest man in the history of the sport to win a UFC championship at a fresh, young 23 years and 242 days. And he did it in dominant fashion, annihilating then-champion Marcio “Shogun” Rua via third-round technical knockout.

Jones will defend his belt for the first time on Saturday night. Six of the previous nine 205-pound champions failed to successfully defend the belt.  Will he make it seven out of the previous 10?

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson certainly thinks so. He is the man who will put Jones’ championship mettle to the test in the main event of UFC 135. By the way, Rampage just so happens to be one of the three men who successfully defended the belt at least once in the last eight years.  

This fight is a huge step in Jones’ career. Gigantic, actually.

Don’t get me wrong. The win over Shogun was monumental. But Jones’ length and wrestling, combined with the fact that Shogun was coming off yet another surgery-imposed injury layoff, made it a perfect matchup for the burgeoning superstar.

Rampage is not a favorable matchup. In fact, he is not a great matchup for anyone, though that is not to suggest that Jones cannot win this fight. He absolutely can win, and it is probably a bit more likely than not that he will win. But he is going to have to be on point in order to leave the arena with the belt still tightly strapped around his waist.

Jones has all the potential in the world. This guy has every tool to be great. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet. He has just 14 professional fights, including just eight in the UFC. Rampage has nearly three times as much overall experience and has fought a “who’s who” of the sport while competing at the elite level for a full decade.

To put that into perspective, Jones had just turned 14 years old when Rampage made his PRIDE debut. And Rampage is just 33 years old, well within his fighting prime.

Yet, it would be foolish to assume that Rampage has seen everything that Jones can throw at him. I’m not sure that the sport has ever witnessed a 205-pound athlete quite like Jones.

Standing 6’4, he has an insane 84.5-inch reach. That means he can hit Rampage from a distance that would otherwise be unthinkable for most fighters. There is no way for the former champion to properly prepare for Jones’ length, unless he is training with heavyweight contender Cheick Kongo, who also stands 6’4, though his reach is almost three inches shorter than what Jones sports.

The other unique part of Jones’ game is his willingness to attack with video game-like strikes. Spinning backfists, spinning elbows, front kicks, axe kicks, flying knees, and just any other strike you can imagine is within the realm of possibilities when Jones fights. He throws them with extreme confidence, so they tend to land and do very real damage. Again, it is virtually impossible for Rampage to fully prepare for those unorthodox strikes.

Mix all of that in with Jones’ elite takedown skills, good cardio and excellent physical strength and you start to see the full picture that is Jon Jones. Through his eight UFC bouts, he has dominated every opponent in every facet of the game. He outboxed a golden gloves boxer. He out kickboxed a dangerous kickboxer. He outwrestled a world-class amateur wrestler. He beat up a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt on the ground.

It’s not surprising that many pundits have anointed this guy as the Second Coming.

Nevertheless, Rampage presents a different look than anything Jones has seen in his short career. He is a very well rounded fighter. Yet, ever since transitioning from PRIDE to the UFC, he has fought in an almost exclusively one-dimensional fashion. Rampage loves to box – not kickbox, box. And he ignores virtually every other aspect of his game in his insatiable hunger for fistic knockouts on the feet.

As good as Jones is on the feet, he wants no part of a fisticuff exchange with Rampage. Trust me on that one. Rampage is one of the game’s most versatile punchers. He can knock out anyone with either hand with only a single punch. Chuck Liddell got his lights turned out with a looping right. It was the first time anyone left Liddell in an unconscious heap in his illustrious career. Rampage put Wanderlei Silva to sleep with a left hook.

Rampage also has tremendous wrestling skills, though he has completely ignored them as of late. The last time we saw Rampage use anything close to resembling his wrestling was in his five round thrashing of Henderson four years ago. By contrast, in PRIDE, Rampage was famous for slamming and then ground-and-pounding his opponents. I will never know why he has turned away from that strength as of late.

Conventional wisdom suggests that Rampage should rely on his wrestling and physical strength to put Jones on his back, and force him to address the one major question mark hanging over his head. We simply do not know if the champion can fight effectively, or even survive, from his back. If one takes to heart the comments by Jones’ former friend and training partner Rashad Evans, then it could be that the champion’s major weaknesses are defending and attacking from his back.

Of course, none of his foes have been able to put him there to find out if that is true or not. Don’t expect Rampage to be the first, despite the fact that devising a game plan to create takedown opportunities may be his best chance to win.

Unfortunately for the former champion, he is far too enamored with his boxing skills to concern himself with takedowns. He won’t be looking for a takedown, unless a Jones strike puts him on ice skates. Trust me on that one. I’m absolutely certain of it. Rampage will come out looking to throw hands with Jones to the exclusion of every other facet of his game, just like he does in every fight. That is true regardless of who he is fighting. It will be true on Saturday night.

Jones needs to take advantage of that approach to the game by refusing to engage in a boxing match with Rampage. He should take a page out of Forrest Griffin’s playbook and kick Rampage’s lead leg until the challenger can no longer put any weight on it.

Rampage walks down opponents with laser-like focus, always looking for an opening to land a lead right hand or counter anything. That tunnel vision results in him either failing to identify lead leg kicks in time to check them or simply not caring enough to worry about that part of the game. Whatever the case, that lone strike singlehandedly won the title for Griffin in their 2008 bout.

It can be the lone reason that Jones retains his title on Saturday night, if the champion commits to the strike early and often. Rampage likely won’t check them, and that will come back to haunt him.

Jones can also take a page from Rashad Evans’ playbook and use strikes to set up takedowns. Rampage sits down on his punches so much that he routinely leaves himself open to takedowns. Once on the ground, he has virtually no offensive submission game from his back. He can defend pretty well, and he certainly has the ability to scramble back to his feet or sweep, but he isn’t going to catch Jones or anyone else with an armbar, triangle choke, gogoplata or any other submission from the guard.

It is probably pretty obvious that I believe that Jones has many more ways to win the fight than Rampage does on Saturday night. I think it is tough to make any argument to the contrary, assuming the one proffering the argument wants to pass the laugh test.

The assumption, therefore, must be that I’m picking Jones to win.

No. I’m picking Rampage. And I’m picking him to win by knockout.

Every criticism written above about Rampage is accurate. He has largely become a one-dimensional fighter of late. But that one dimension is so much better than everyone else that it is scary. Rampage is the best boxer in the division by leaps and bounds.  He is exceptional at avoiding clean shots and delivering one in return. All it takes is one mistake by Jones and Rampage can turn the lights out, whether in the first minute or the 24th minute.

Jones does not have that ability, and that will be the difference in the fight. In addition, this whole mess about spygate in Rampage’s camp will serve to help Rampage. Jones admitted in his SpikeTV interview last week that his foe’s allegations of cheating have gotten inside his head.  Jones is a young, emotional guy. Fighting a killer like Rampage with emotion is the wrong thing to do. If Jones comes out looking to teach Rampage a lesson with his fists, he will get his lights turned out.

That is precisely what I think will happen. If not, I think Jones will embark on what could turn out to be a record-setting run at light heavyweight. Either way, this is can’t-miss TV.

QUICK FACTS
 
Jon Jones
•    24 years old
•    6’4, 205 lbs
•    84.5-inch reach
•    13-1 overall (7-1 UFC)
•    Lone UFC loss was a DQ for illegal elbow strikes to Matt Hamill in a fight Jones was dominating
•    6 of last 7 fights have ended inside the distance
•    3 of last 5 ended inside the first round
•    61.5% of wins by KO/TKO (8 out of 13)
•    23.1% of wins by submission (3 out of 13)
•    15.4% of wins by decision (2 out of 13)
•    Knockout of the Night and Submission of the Night winner
•    Current layoff of 189 days is the longest of his career

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson
•    33 years old
•    6’1, 205 lbs
•    73-inch reach
•    32-8 overall (19-7 UFC/PRIDE)
•    4-1 in last 5 fights
•    8-2 in last 10 fights
•    7-5 against 9 current or former UFC/PRIDE champions
•    Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion
•    406-day reign as champion; 1 successful title defense
•    42.9% of UFC wins by KO (3 out of 7)
•    57.1% of UFC wins by decision (4 out of 7)
•    No UFC wins by submission
•    Both UFC losses by unanimous decision
•    Has only been submitted once in 39 professional fights, nearly 10 years ago
•    Stopped 3 times by strikes as a professional
•    First man to unify UFC and PRIDE titles
•    Fight of the Night twice
•    Knockout of the Night twice
•    Current layoff is 119 days
•    Undefeated in the UFC when fighting with less than 230 days off (7-0)
•    Longest layoff of his career is 448 days