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Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans: Does It Matter That They Trained Together?

Jon Jones and Rashad Evans will finally settle their score at UFC 145 on April 21st. Once a brotherhood between the two at Greg Jackson’s MMA, the relationship has altered and gone down two separate paths.But like the old saying, all roads lead t…

But like the old saying, all roads lead to Rome.

Very fitting in the sense that these two warriors, who have had different career paths, will ultimately throw down in the Colosseum of today, the Octagon. After a back-and-forth drama of betrayal and controversy, the two will finally see who is the better fighter.

Jones is the current UFC Light Heavyweight champion, and Evans is a former champ himself. The fight between the two is fueled by the hype surrounding Jones and their story of “friends turned rivals.” The variable in question here is if Evans has an advantage or not over Jones, since the two have trained together.

Evans is walking into the cage as a huge underdog according to oddsmakers, but in his eyes, he already has Jones’ number. Fans have expressed that Evans has the best chance of winning due to his time spent with Jones training.

Jones is one of those fighters, like Anderson Silva, who are very hard to emulate with training partners. Arguably, one of Silva and Jones’ biggest advantages is the unique and unorthodox styles that their opponents are not used to.

The support for Evans taking home a win is primarily based on his previous knowledge of Jones, paired with his own well-rounded skills. This, however, probably isn’t justifiably as important as people believe it will be.

Some feel that Jones will walk right through Evans; others believe that Evans will give him a run for his money due to his previous training with Jones. The problem with this is that they both have evolved since training with each other. Thus, this factor may not prove to be as significant as many think.

Evans does have some knowledge advantage, but at the end of the day, it’s just knowledge.

Vitor Belfort had trained with Anderson Silva a while back, and despite sparring and training, it did not help him in the least when they finally stepped in the cage at UFC 126. Both Jones and Evans have been training differently and getting better since the “breakup” and fans will most likely see two different fighters.

This fight is between two of the best light heavyweights out, with the fire of gaining the other’s respect back. You will likely see an even improved Jones, as well as a motivated and ready Evans.

The familiarity with someone’s moves is great to know, but it would only be significant if they had spent years training together, and did so up until a fight with one another. Evans has left Jackson’s MMA and been with Imperial Athletics and a whole new set of teammates and trainers. This is where the new Evans will shine through.

But will it be enough? The fans and media talk about how Evans has an advantage because he knows how Jones moves and what his strengths and weaknesses are, but no one flips the coin on the matter.

While Evans was learning about Jones, Jones was learning about Evans. The media portrays this possible advantage that Evans has, but never gives it to Jones as well. This is why this whole “Evans has his number” can be rather obsolete.

One can argue that because of Evans’ new camp, Jones loses that aspect, but Jones assumingly has not been on the same routine with the same people since Evans was with Jackson’s MMA. Jones is an ever-improving and evolving fighter. Evans may have the familiarity with Jones’ reach, but Jones is smart enough to not just rely on that advantage.

Both men should see a different fighter across from them when they go toe-to-toe.

This article is not to say Evans has no advantage or way of winning, though. Jones has earned the right to be the favorite going into this fight, but Evans poses a great challenge for him regardless of back story and controversy. He is very quick with knockout power and has a strong wrestling game. Evans showed his counter-punching well against Phil Davis and looked great against Tito Ortiz.

The long layoff made people wonder if ring rust would set in, but Evans proved he was still on point.

UFC 145 will be a night of great fights, topped off with a fan-pleasing main event. It is a championship fight between the former champ and TUF winner and the youngest champ in UFC history who is riding a huge hype train and deservedly so. It is a title fight that has a controversial rivalry and has been long overdue.

Jones vs. Evans has the potential to be either fighter’s biggest highlight of their career.

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Griffin and Bonnar Should Be the Next Coaches for TUF

The UFC has had significant moments throughout its history that have been milestones for growth and development. Purchasing the likes of Strikeforce and Pride, merging with the WEC and so on are all ways the UFC has built itself up. With a new FOX deal…

But one moment seems to stick out more than the others. It was not purchasing another company, or signing some deal. Rather, it was a single fight, and that was Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar.

Of course, the whole first season of The Ultimate Fighter was significant in its own right, but it was the war that was waged between these two men that made a huge difference in the success of the sport. Often called one of the best fights in UFC history, Griffin vs. Bonnar took place in April of 2005, just under seven years ago. Now we are in a new age of UFC and MMA, and both men have had different career paths in the UFC.

What doesn’t necessarily need to happen, but what would be a fantastic business move, would be to have the two pitted against each other for a third time. Both fighters have had their ups and down in their careers since fighting in 2005, and then again in 2006, but both are at a point where fighting each other would be significant and a good matchup. While Forrest has won the first two meetings by decision, it is a fight that Bonnar wants nonetheless.

Bonnar sat down recently with UFC Fight Club members for a Q&A video chat, during which he described how he wants to fight “guys who are popular.” He suggested Griffin as one of those people, saying, “I want to fight a guy with lots of Twitter followers…100,000 followers, I want to fight you…if a guy has 200,000 followers, I’ll fight him for free!”

While joking, he does signify he wants fights that will build his name and his career in the right direction.

Bonnar also stated that, in the occurrence they do fight again, “…I promise not to go for a takedown!”

Not only would a fight with Griffin again be a good fight to take next by itself, but it would up the ante if the UFC decided to have Griffin and Bonnar as opposing coaches on the next The Ultimate Fighter. To MMA fans, this is a great fight, maybe more so for nostalgic reasons, but an exciting concept nonetheless. Having the two winners (officially Griffin) from the first season come back and be coaches seven years later would be great to see.

As a business move, the UFC could use this as a huge card to market. Having the history of these two and where they have come from since the first fight is a promotional gold mine. Both fighters are not washed up by any means, but both seem to be sort of taking on a very small gatekeeper role in the division.

Bonnar has won his past three, which is notable, but he’s correct in his decision to take on more “popular” guys at this point in time.

Griffin just recently lost to Shogun and is expected to fight Ortiz again in a rubber match possibly sometime this year.

In the count of which weight classes have been covered the most, it is a three-way tie with LW, WW and MW, with five seasons of TUF covering them. LHW has three, HW and FW with two and BW with one. Ostensibly, they would not put Griffin and Bonnar coaching flyweights, but they might make another heavyweight season.

Regardless of the route the UFC chooses to take, a rematch with Griffin vs. Bonnar would be a welcomed fight to have. A couple New York Times bestselling books and a comical clothing line later, these two men are still ready and willing to show the world a great fight.

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Anderson Silva: What Would the Middleweight Division Be Like Without Him?

The UFC’s middleweight division may not be the strongest perceived division in the lineup of eight, but it certainly is home to one of the best MMA fighters of all time. Anderson Silva has reigned supreme over the 185-pound division since 2006. H…

The UFC’s middleweight division may not be the strongest perceived division in the lineup of eight, but it certainly is home to one of the best MMA fighters of all time.

Anderson Silva has reigned supreme over the 185-pound division since 2006. He has not lost in his two bouts at light heavyweight and has finished most of his opponents. However, having a fighter who is as dominant as he is makes the rest of the division seem like a shadow.

Despite what many might say, the Middleweight division is not weak. It may be one of the “weakest” of the eight, but it is not weak in regards to talent and good fighters. While light heavyweight and lightweight have huge pools of talent, it does not mean that middleweight doesn’t have any talent at all aside from the champ.

The question to ask, though, is what would happen to the division if tomorrow there were no Silva?

It has become second nature to think of “The Spider” when anyone mentions the middleweight division in MMA, but what if he disappeared or retired tomorrow?

Probably the most predominant change, but one that would be realized over time, is the perception. The division is perceived as weak or “not as stacked” as others. This is due to every fan’s own personal criteria, but it also has to do with the fact that Silva has been so far beyond the talent of the rest in his division.

In essence, he is so good that he makes other good fighters look not as good as they really are.

If Silva were to vanish from the division, the division would start looking much more competitive. Not that it wasn’t before, but many people find a division more exciting when there is an arguable chance that any one of the top five contenders could give the champ a run for their money. With Silva, some people don’t see him challenged, minus Chael Sonnen.

Without Silva at the helm, you have a great set of fighters vying for the title. Since most of the top contenders are well-matched amongst themselves, without Silva, the battle for the championship would be much more interesting.

Fighters like Michael Bisping, Chael Sonnen, Mark Munoz, Vitor Belfort, Rousimar Palhares, Brian Stann and others would suddenly get a jump in ratings and within a year’s time, these rankings would change drastically from what they have been these past years.

You would have a new champ, with a bunch of talented fighters who could win on any given night. Within the names listed above, there are none that are as clear a bet as Silva is in his current position. This is not to make it sound like they are not consistent or talented, since they are clearly the opposite, but match any of these men up with each other, and the betting odds are closer than if you pitted them against Silva.

Without Silva in the division, you might also see a few others return/show up to the division. Dan Henderson would be a candidate if he isn’t LHW champ or something by then, or some welterweights may want to move up.

It would certainly make an easier road for GSP to attempt to get to the top. If the UFC acquires Hector Lombard, Tim Kennedy, Ronaldo Souza, etc, they would also be adding to the pool and the middleweight division would be revolutionized.

Of course, other fighters already in the UFC 185 division would have their chance to climb back up, if Silva were gone. Leben, Okami and Maia are a few, and if the UFC ever gets back Nate Marquardt, the division becomes a stacked place of great fighters where each of them has a significant chance to win the title.

Silva may not drop off the face of the earth tomorrow, but time is certainly working against him at this point in his career. He does not have many years left, and being 36 and starting in MMA in 1997, one can only speculate as to when he will go downhill. Either he will begin to show wear, tear and age, or he will retire.

After the Sonnen fight, not many are sure what lies in front of him if he beats Sonnen again. There is always someone coming up in the ranks, but Silva will only be taking on challengers for so long.

For now, we are honored to watch such an athlete perform, despite our own personal feelings about him. We are fortunate to be able to look back years later and say that we got to watch a man become of the greatest of all time in this sport. Every generation has its “Jordan” or “Ali”; Silva is ours.

If he ends up training Jon Jones, as the LHW champ has expressed interest in, it makes for a great story of passing the torch.

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UFC: Analyzing the Layoff

The UFC is currently taking a breather since the company will not be putting on any PPV or major TV events for quite some time. We just got through a great card of UFC on FX 2, which took place on March 3, but it will be not until April 14 to witness another card. The UFC will return with UFC on Fuel TV 2, where Alexander Gustafsson will face the returning Thiago Silva.

While stacked with well-known fighters, especially Brian Stann, the card is not the strongest. It won’t be until April 21 that fans will have another PPV event to watch. With almost six weeks of layoff, the UFC will focus on its reality show, “The Ultimate Fighter,” which starts on March 9.

Some might argue if this layoff is a welcomed or not, and most of it is probably subjective. Having seven different events, with three of them PPV already this year, the UFC already saturated the first quarter of 2012. From January to present-day March in 2011, the UFC put on five events. Before that it stayed around three, and before 2004, there was essentially only one.

The UFC has already stated this will be the most event-filled year to date, and with their fresh partnership with FOX, it seems they will be delivering in full force. Some might argue this hiatus is a great thing, giving the viewers at home a little time for their wallets to cool off. They wouldn’t argue about too many fights, but too many $45-$55 PPV’s are hard on anyone these days.

The only bad thing about this layoff is the less exposure, of course, combined with a general lull feeling in the MMA world. Media sites will have a lot of filler articles during this time about things like the good and bad of the layoff and analyzing it.

What a silly topic! But still, some will be interested to read about it, since most fans are probably already feeling like they are going through withdrawal.

This feeling has come as a double-edged sword. The UFC and ZUFFA in general have put out a continuously growing number of events, and having seven already by March 3^rd, it just feels natural that one would be coming up soon. It has come to a point where people can assume there is a fight each weekend, and be right most of the time. The Ultimate Fighter is like an IV drip for the time, but major events are what we crave.

It doesn’t help the fact that UFC 144, which was at the end of February, had seven fights on the main card, with five prelims prior. A week later was another 11 fights at UFC on FX 2.

To put this into perspective, fans have watched 73 different bouts since the start of this year.

That’s a little more than a fight per day, and eight matches every week. Years ago when the UFC first started, in order to come close to matching that 73 bouts, it would have taken every bout from UFC 1 to UFC 7. That span was from November of 1993, until September of 1995, instead of less than three months.

This is why when there is a six-week layoff, after nine weeks of what was just mentioned so far, the feeling of discontent is inevitable. While the layoff allows everyone to get caught up and have solid debates without rankings changing every weekend, it hinders the publicity. The UFC is strong enough that this doesn’t negatively affect them in a significant way, and if anything, it will help boost the sales of UFC 145. Fans may have felt anxious for the next PPV, and a championship one like Jones vs. Evans is a welcomed way for people to fork out the cost yet again.

The layoff was partially due to UFC 145 being moved from its original date of March 24, but that too would have put a gap from April 14, until May 5. This break is bittersweet for many and has both good and bad implications as a result. While we all await UFC on Fuel 2 and UFC 145, our attention will at least be stimulated by a newly formatted TUF season, which now comes to us live.

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UFC: What Will Be Different in the Rematch of Johnson vs. McCall

UFC on FX 2 played host to the start of the first UFC flyweight tournament, and will eventually lead to crowning the inaugural UFC Flyweight champion. Joseph Benavidez and Yasuhiro Urushitani came and went as many expected them to, but the matchup betw…

The two 125-pounders squared off and put on a fantastic battle. The pace was fast and the movement was even quicker. After the three grueling rounds, everyone listened in to hear what the decision would be. It was declared that Johnson won via a Majority Decision (29–28, 29–29, 29–28). Many fans voiced their disapproval or approval for the decision, but it wouldn’t be until the post-fight press conference that fans would learn that the commission got it wrong, thus changing up their perspectives.

The fight was supposed to be a Majority Draw, since the judges had it scored (29–28, 29–29, 28–28). The cards were read incorrectly, resulting in the stoppage of what should have gone to a fourth “sudden death” round. Now with this new information, a rematch will be issued to determine Benavidez’s opponent for the title match.

The two men will face each other, and one would think this will be a different fight. Not so much physically, but more so mentally.

When two opponents fight each other for the first time, there is a sense of uncertainty of what they are like to fight. For someone to step into the cage vs. Jon Jones or Anderson Silva, it is hard to emulate them with training partners. Now both Johnson and McCall have had a little taste of what the other brings to the table. An advantage of familiarity could go to either fighter.

McCall fighting Johnson for the first time was an interesting UFC debut in its own right. It was the first time he was on the biggest stage in MMA, and was fighting one of the fastest, if not the fastest, fighters in the UFC. That speed, pace and movement that “Mighty Mouse” uses in his fights is unique, and certainly is respected by McCall. He knows the striking now of Johnson and knows that his ground game is a sizeable advantage.

Demetrious Johnson will certainly prepare differently for this rematch, after matching up well for two rounds, and then being pummeled for the third. Johnson has the knowledge of where he needs to improve and to work on getting off his back, or just how to stay away from the mat in general. Not that Johnson will improve his takedown defense drastically over one camp, but his strategy is much more informed. His pace and striking helped him implement his game plan for the most part, but he will want to improve in every aspect as to get a definitive win over “Uncle Creepy.”

One of the biggest things that McCall should take away is to not assume he is winning the fight. McCall has since been criticized for his crowd-pumping at the end of the third round while he had the back mount on Johnson. Many feel that if he had continued to batter and ground-and-pound Johnson, he could have gotten a TKO, or done enough to convince the judges to score it more in his favor.

In the rematch, Johnson should show, or at least his efforts of, improved takedown and ground bottom skills. McCall will want to continue to use those ground skills, but much more effectively in looking for the finish. It was clearly a great advantage for McCall, and despite what Johnson learns before the rematch, he still might be able to take him down and hold him there.

Mentally, McCall is now no stranger to the big crowd and lights from the UFC stage, and the ambiguity of a fresh opponent. This takes away a part of what Johnson had working for him, but the rematch will tell if it really matters or not. Both men will be motivated not only to get a shot at facing Benavidez and a shot at the title, but also to leave no doubt in the minds of the fans as to who was supposed to win the first fight.

This writer’s prediction will be that Johnson wins the rematch, but by no means does that mean it will be an easy ride for him. A Unanimous Decision win seems to be a good choice for the outcome, regardless. If McCall is the one to learn more from the first bout, then a TKO victory will go to him.

The most interesting aspect to any rematch is to see how each fighter has learned from the first meeting, and uses that to improve. Especially rematches from close decisions, it adds anxiousness of who really understands what they need to do to definitively win the fight, and who actually goes out and does it.

Aside from all the controversy and the twists in plot over the past months, the UFC has still managed to trudge on and put on great shows for fans. While we are sidelined for a bit, minus The Ultimate Fighter, the UFC should be shelving out more upcoming matchups and when the rematch will be for Johnson and McCall. Fans can rest assured they will get another exciting fight from these two men.

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Predicting the UFC Title Holders at the End of 2012

According to the Mayan calendar, 2012 is supposed to be the end of humanity as we know it.Until then, it will be packed with record-breaking UFC and MMA coverage.We will see the UFC champions fight to defend their titles once again.So far, we have had …

According to the Mayan calendar, 2012 is supposed to be the end of humanity as we know it.

Until then, it will be packed with record-breaking UFC and MMA coverage.

We will see the UFC champions fight to defend their titles once again.

So far, we have had some new developments, and there is plenty of time for more.

This is a list of all the UFC weight divisions and general predictions on whose waist the belt will be around by the time we are to meet our impending doom.

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