Author: Kevin Sampson

Chael Sonnen vs Jon Jones: And the Winner Is … Bellator FC?

UFC President Dana White has done it again. He has kicked over the proverbial anthill of controversy and thrown the MMA world into an angry frenzy. Just in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past week and a half, Dana White has announce…

UFC President Dana White has done it again. He has kicked over the proverbial anthill of controversy and thrown the MMA world into an angry frenzy.

Just in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past week and a half, Dana White has announced the next opponent for Light Heavyweight World Champion Jonny “Bones” Jones.

Prior to the announcement, MMA media and fans were abuzz trying to figure out who would fight Jones next

Would Lyoto Machida get the title shot he was promised? 

Would it be Dan Henderson? 

Glover Teixeira and Phil Davis were long shots, but ideally suited to step in if the injury bug should strike. 

The general consensus was that the winner of the fight between Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Alexander “The Mauler” Gustafsson would get the next title shot, but this too was far from certain.

Then Dana White announced that it would be none of the above. Instead, Jon Jones will coach opposite Chael Sonnen in the next season of The Ultimate Fighter. The traditional coaches’ fight is tentatively scheduled for April of next year.

In a single stroke, Chael Sonnen went from two-time failed challenger for the 185 lbs title to getting an immediate title shot at 205 lbs.

 

 

 

 

 

The problems with this move are many. Chael Sonnen hasn’t fought at light heavyweight in seven years. He has never actually won a fight at light heavyweight in the UFC. And to make matters worse, this will be the second time in a row that Jones will defend his title against a middleweight, all while disregarding every established light heavyweight.  

For his part, Dana White seems to have been absolutely determined to create the Sonnen/Jones match up. But it seems he is hell-bent on making it happen without Chael Sonnen winning even one fight at Light Heavyweight. And never mind having him beat a top ten light heavyweight, though this seems to be a bare minimum requirement for everybody else.

The only reasonable conclusion is that Dana White knows Chael Sonnen would almost certainly lose to any of the top ten light heavyweights.  Why else would he try to sneak Sonnen into a title fight with Jones not once but twice? Perhaps Dana believes that his crafty deception has fooled everyone and he won’t be forced to risk a huge money making fight to something so trivial as making Chael actually earn it.

Sadly, this is nothing new for the UFC. Ken Shamrock, Brock Lesnar, Tank Abbott and BJ Penn all got undeserved title shots that didn’t make sense at the time. Randy Couture got three of them. Undeserved title shots have been plaguing the UFC since they phased out their original tournament format

 

 

Many of us sincerely believed that this was just a necessary evil to keep the UFC alive and growing but we hoped that with the UFC had grown out of it.

 

 

This naively optimistic notion has been quickly unraveling lately. First Nick Diaz gets an instant title shot in his UFC re-debut – though he lost that opportunity due to his own stupidity. Then Frankie Edgar gets an instant title shot against Jose Aldo after coming off of two straight losses. Then Vitor Belfort gets a title shot at light heavyweight for no logical reason at all.

It seems that Chael Sonnen getting this undeserved title shot is just the straw that is broke the proverbial camel’s back. 

The backlash since the announcement of Sonnen vs. Jones has been surprisingly angry and loud. Many fans are vowing to boycott The Ultimate Fighter 17 and the Jones vs. Sonnen title fight. Some fans are swearing off MMA altogether. Clearly a lot of UFC fans are angry. Very angry.

For their part, the UFC seems like they could care less. They willingly toss all notions of being a legitimate sports league in the garbage again and again.

Any legitimate sports promotion should offer equal chance for all participants to become champion. In any real sport, wins and losses actually matter. The UFC just doesn’t seem interested in such trivial things.

 

 

As luck would have it, the UFC’s backsliding couldn’t have come at a better time for one Bellator Fighting Championship, the world’s second strongest mixed martial arts promotion.

 

Just to be clear, Bellator is such a distant second to the UFC that it is just silly to even call them rivals. Bellator is in no position to challenge the UFC’s superiority. Not even close.

But Bellator does have the cure for the problem we’re seeing in the UFC. Bellator is true to their motto, “Where title shots are earned, not given.”

In Bellator, if you want a title shot, there is no mystery about how to get it. Enter the eight man tournament at the specified weight, beat three other top fighter to win the tournament and you will get your title shot. No fighter can get a title shot without earning it. No fighter can be denied a title shot that earned it.

Some MMA fans feel like the UFC is trampling all sense of fairness by making the Sonnen vs. Jones match up. A lot of those folks will tell you that this is ruining their love of the sport. For those folks, Bellator FC provides an excellent alternative.  

Bellator FC will begin airing live events on Spike TV this coming January. They have fighters ranked in the top ten in most of their weight classes. They have champions and fights in every weight class the UFC has, with the exception of Flyweight. Bellator also features sweet submissions, which is possibly the best MMA fan education concept that I’ve ever heard of. Bellator has no pay-per-views. Every Bellator event is broadcast on free TV, and all of them will be on SpikeTV. Bellator fans won’t have to answer the question, “Is this fight card worth $55 to watch?” and they don’t have to wonder what channel the fights are on.

I will continue to watch and love both the UFC and Bellator. I watch any MMA I can, but that’s just me. The UFC and Bellator are run so differently that it’s difficult to really compare them. The UFC definitely has the best fighters and the biggest events. Bellator has tournaments, is very entertaining and their competitive sports model actually makes logical sense.

I’m not going to say either one is better than the other, but I do think that Bellator President Bjorn Rebney should at least send Dana White a thank you card.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Jon Jones vs. Anderson Silva: How to Make the Ultimate Superfight Happen

It’s the super-fight that mixed martial arts fans have been begging for. This is the biggest fight the UFC can possibly make right now. It would be the biggest fight in mixed martial arts history.  – Anderson “The Spider” Silva has never los…

It’s the super-fight that mixed martial arts fans have been begging for. This is the biggest fight the UFC can possibly make right now. It would be the biggest fight in mixed martial arts history. 

  • – Anderson “The Spider” Silva has never lost in the UFC. He is riding a 17-fight UFC winning streak…the longest in UFC history. 
  • – Jonny “Bones” Jones has never truly lost a fight in his entire fighting career. Jones has seventeen career wins, zero losses and one great big asterisk by the name of Matt Hamill. Eleven of Jon’s wins have come inside the UFC. 
  • – Both of them have faced the best challengers that the UFC could find for them and beaten them all soundly.
  • – Both of them have the uncanny knack for making the best fighters on the planet look like amateurs.
  • – Both finish opponents that are notoriously hard to finish and they do it with style.  
  • – Both have battled back from adversity in brilliant fashion. 
  • – Going into a fight showcasing either Anderson Silva or Jon Jones, you know that you’re about to see something you’ve never seen before. 

UFC President Dana White has vowed to make this matchup happen. A bold promise indeed in light of the fact that both Jones and Silva flatly refuse to fight each other every time it’s brought up. 

In this situation, Dana White can’t just pull rank and tell them, “You’re fighting, deal with it.” These are two living legends. Both men can tell Dana White, “No” without any fear of the consequences.  

You can’t risk driving the two greatest fighters in all of mixed martial arts out of the UFC and into the arms of your competition. 

Rather than making demands and setting ultimatums, the UFC must sell the fight to Jon Jones and Anderson Silva.

Here is how you do it: 

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UFC 152: Jon Jones and the Greatest Light Heavyweights Ever by the Numbers

What defines greatness? That is a very difficult question to answer. Is it defined by being so dominant that the fighter never even comes close to defeat? Or does come when fighters overcome adversity and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat? I …

What defines greatness? That is a very difficult question to answer. Is it defined by being so dominant that the fighter never even comes close to defeat? Or does come when fighters overcome adversity and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat? 

I think that true greatness is both of those things. 

For example, I always kind of liked Rich Franklin. Rich was a tough fighter, always a game opponent and virtually never and easy out for anybody. Rich is second only to Anderson Silva in terms of dominance at 185 pounds.

But there was a moment when Rich became legendary forever for me. 

That was the day he fought Chuck Liddell. Liddell broke Rich’s power left hand with a kick midway through the first round. Franklin knew it was broken, but he refused to quit and kept on fighting. He even threw punches with his broken arm. 

In the closing seconds of the first round, Rich Franklin punched Liddell flush in the face with is weaker right hand. Chuck Liddell dropped to the floor, completely unconscious.  

Chuck Liddell would never fight again. Rich Franklin will always be remembered as the man who put the final stamp on Chuck Liddell‘s legendary career. But the fact that he did it with a broken arm? That’s the stuff legends are made of.

At UFC 152, Jon Jones did one better than Franklin in his victory over Vitor Belfort. Jones got caught in a deep arm bar in the first round, and Jones’ arm popped. Amazingly, Jones escaped the submission and spent the rest of Round 1 beating Vitor Belfort to a bloody pulp, all while sporting a severely injured right arm. 

Jones fought the entire second and third rounds with that injured right arm. He threw punches and elbows with it, and he continued to absolutely dominate Vitor Belfort in both rounds.

In the forth round, Jones put Belfort into a crucifix position and then locked on an Americana. This is no easy feat with one injured arm. An Americana uses both arms as opposing levers to crank the opponent’s shoulder.

Jones cranked the Americana, Vitor Belfort tapped out and the fight was over. Jonny “Bones” Jones adds a fourth successful title defense to his current run as champion. 

Just to be clear, Jones is still MMA‘s version of Terrell Owens in my book. He says the wrong thing constantly, pisses fans and fighters off constantly and draws ill-will like a magnet draws iron filings.

But whether you love him or hate him, Jon Jones just proved to be a total badass. 

After notching his fourth successful title defense, Jonny “Bones’ Jones has matched the mark set by Chuck Liddell, Frank Shamrock and Wanderlei Silva. If there was any doubt before now, there is no doubt remaining. Jon Jones has just joined one of the most hotly debated topics in MMA: Who is the greatest light heavyweight in mixed martial arts history?

So how does he stack up in comparison to the greatest light heavyweights in the history of the sport? What do the numbers say? 

First of all, one thing needs to be set straight. The loss to Matt Hamill doesn’t count. That was a garbage loss, pure and simple. How do you “lose” when you beat your opponent so badly that they are unable to stand up to continue the fight? It is just as invalid as Fedor Emelianenko losing to Tsuyoshi Kohsaka and Anderson Silva losing to Yushin Okami. The Matt Hamill fight is a no contest as far as I’m concerned.

So with that in mind, let’s look at what the numbers have to say. Here are the five best light heavyweights in MMA history in order of dominance. 

  1. Jon Jones: 17 wins, 0 losses, 1 NC. He has finished in 82 percent of his wins, his longest winning streak is 17 and he now has four title defenses.
  2. Wanderlei Silva: 34 wins, 12 losses, 1 draw, 1 NC. Wandy finished in 79 percent of his wins, his longest winning streak was 14 fights and he had four successful title defenses. 
  3. Frank Shamrock: 23 wins, 10 losses, 2 draws. Shamrock finished in 70 percent of his wins, his longest winning streak was 11 fights and he had four successful title defenses. 
  4. Chuck Liddell: 21 wins, 8 losses. Chuck finished in 66 percent of his wins, his longest winning streak was 10 fights long and he had four successful title defenses 
  5. Tito Ortiz:  16 wins, 11 losses, 1 draw. Ortiz finished in 69 percent of his wins, his longest winning streak was six fights and he had five successful title defenses.

Whether it’s by sheer dominance, overcoming adversity, winning streak, highest rate of finishing opponents or anything else you can dream up, Jon Jones is the greatest light heavyweight ever. There really isn’t any room for debate.

I’m sure there will still be some doubters and haters who will cavalierly point out, “Yeah but Tito Ortiz still has more title defenses.” And they’re right, Tito still has one more title defense than Jones. To completely end all doubt, Jones needs to defend two more times. 

Ideally, those victories should come against top opponents. The winner of Gustafsson vs. Shogun should get the next crack at Jon Jones’ title. The winner of Lyoto Machida vs. Dan Henderson should get the next shot after that. 

This is where Chael Sonnen‘s big mouth might become a liability to Jon Jones’ legacy. If Sonnen beats Forrest Griffin, the UFC and fans of the sport will probably start demanding Chael Sonnen vs. Jon Jones. Jones will win, no question about it. And years from now, history will see that fight for what it really is: A crap win over a completely undeserving title challenger. 

If Chael is allowed to cut in line and becomes Jones’ fifth or sixth title defense, Jones might need seven defenses to truly seal the deal. 

Jon Jones may be a lot like Terrell Owens: He’s a public relations disaster more often than not, making his phenomenal career accomplishments lose some of their luster. But at the end of the day, Jones is already the greatest light heavyweight fighter of all time. 

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC Champion Jon Jones: Is Jonny Really Too Big to Be a Light Heavyweight?

Déjà vu: “The strange sensation that something one is now experiencing has happened before:” That’s a feeling I’ve experienced a lot lately, especially in discussions about the UFC Lightweight Champion Jonny “Bones” Jones.The stateme…

Déjà vu: “The strange sensation that something one is now experiencing has happened before:” 

That’s a feeling I’ve experienced a lot lately, especially in discussions about the UFC Lightweight Champion Jonny “Bones” Jones.

The statement, “Jon Jones is too big to be a Light Heavyweight” seems to get repeated over and over again like a broken record and I think people have come to accept that as fact without bothering to question it.

The notion that Jones is over sized for the 205 lb. weight class and must soon make the transition to the UFC Heavyweight Division seems to be just as universally believed and accepted as the notion that water is wet and that the sun shines. 

Let’s be clear about one thing. It’s got nothing to do with weight.

Stephan Bonnar, Jake O’Brien, Matt Hamill, Ryan Bader, Shogun Rua and Rampage Jackson were all visibly heavier than Jon Jones on fight night. Most of them were significantly heavier. The rest of Jon’s opponents were about the same weight as Jones on fight night. 

Complaints about Jones being too big are entirely focused on Jon Jones’ massive 84.5″ wingspan, and to a lesser degree, his 6′ 4″ height.  

Those who dislike Jones see the inevitable transition to heavyweight as his comeuppance for dominating fighters who were smaller than him. No longer will he have such a ridiculous reach advantage over all of his opponents and justice will finally be done.

It all sounds very nice.

 

But is it true? 

There is nothing quite like using facts to either uphold or debunk any given theory. How much bigger are the best heavyweights when compared with the best light heavyweights?

 

So here we have the official Bleacher Report Light Heavyweight top 10 rankings: 

 

Other opponents Jon Jones has faced at 205 lbs. include:

So while Jones is not the tallest light heavyweight, he clearly enjoys a significant reach advantage over everyone in the division’s top 10. Phil Davis comes the closest to equaling him with his 79 inch wingspan.  

So what do the heavyweights look like?

Other significant heavyweights who are not ranked currently are:

Note: It should be pointed out, Shane Carwin and Alistair Overeem are not in Bleacher Report’s top 10 because they do not qualify. Overeem is currently suspended for steroids, while Carwin has been inactive for over one year.  

Looking over the top 10 heavyweights, the numbers look almost exactly the same. I’m seeing a slight increase in average height and almost exactly the same amount of reach. The closest any of the top 10 heavyweights comes to equaling Jon Jones for reach is Frank Mir with his 79 inch wingspan—exactly the same reach as Phil Davis. 

So if you lay awake at night praying for the day that Jon Jones has to fight somebody who actually has substantially longer reach than he does, I’ve got bad news for you: That is a day that will never happen.

If you dream of the day when Jon Jones no longer has a reach advantage in every single fight, I’m here to tell you that isn’t happening either. 

Jon Jones lopsided reach advantage at light heavyweight will remain just as lopsided if and when he moves up to heavyweight. 

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC 151: Recapping and Analyzing the Train Wreck of a Lost Fight Card

The past few days have been some of the strangest in all of mixed martial arts history. On Wednesday, UFC fans were looking forward to UFC 151: Jones vs. Henderson.Today, UFC 151 has just become the most infamous event in the Zuffa era of the UFC. It i…

The past few days have been some of the strangest in all of mixed martial arts history. On Wednesday, UFC fans were looking forward to UFC 151: Jones vs. Henderson.

Today, UFC 151 has just become the most infamous event in the Zuffa era of the UFC. It is the first and only card that was cancelled by the UFC.

The media whirlwind. The uproar, fury, the backlash among UFC fans and fighters alike. Blame, hate and anger flying every which way. It all comes as no surprise. Still, it has been an amazing thing to behold.

Who’s to blame for everything?

How badly has the UFC brand been damaged? 

What could have been done differently? 

Who emerged from the chaos in a better light than before?

There’s plenty of blame to go around, of course. Let’s take a deep breath, step back and take a look at what happened.

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Bring the Ultimate Fighter Back from the Dead! Team Sonnen vs. Team Rashad

Earlier this year, the UFC launched its inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter Live on FX with high expectations. Unfortunately, The Ultimate Fighter on FX absolutely tanked. It was one of the least watched seasons of The Ultimate Fighter ever. There…

Earlier this year, the UFC launched its inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter Live on FX with high expectations. Unfortunately, The Ultimate Fighter on FX absolutely tanked. It was one of the least watched seasons of The Ultimate Fighter ever.

There is no shortage of analysis on what went wrong. Maybe it was because they selected coaches from the Bantamweight division, a weight class that is still struggling to gain widespread fan interest. Perhaps the live format was to blame. Maybe moving TUF from Spike TV to FX was a move that lost casual viewers who weren’t paying attention to all the commercials telling them that the change was coming.

At this point, figuring out what went wrong isn’t really the most important task at hand. Putting together the most watched season ever of The Ultimate Fighter is all that really matters.  

So how do you accomplish such a lofty goal? 

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