Author: Scott Polacek

UFC 172 Results: Breaking Down Jon Jones’ Victory and More Top Storylines

UFC 172 made history thanks to the dominance of Jon “Bones” Jones against Glover Teixeira. 
ESPN Stats & Info broke it down for fans:

Let’s take a look at his impressive victory, as well as some of the other results fro…

UFC 172 made history thanks to the dominance of Jon “Bones” Jones against Glover Teixeira. 

ESPN Stats & Info broke it down for fans:

Let’s take a look at his impressive victory, as well as some of the other results from UFC 172.

 

Jones Dominates

Jones improved his record to 20-1 and was never challenged by Teixeira over the course of five rounds in Baltimore. All three judges scored the contest in favor of Jones, 50-45, in what was a much more dominating performance than his last fight against Alexander Gustafsson.

Jones commented on the fight afterward, via Brett Okamoto of ESPN.com: “It was a lot of improv. Game plan was to stick takedowns and pick him apart from a distance. I realized he was winding up on his punches so I switched game plans and fought at extremely close range. It worked out great.”

Jones controlled the entire fight with his 84” reach and never gave Teixeira much of a chance.

In fact, the fans even started to boo Teixeira in the fifth round when his mouthpiece fell out.

After such a dominating performance, it’s only natural for Jones to look ahead, especially since he nearly lost to Gustafsson in his previous bout.

Of particular interest is the fact that the UFC is considering taking that fight to Sweden.

Considering how close the Swede came to knocking off Jones in their previous fight, any edge that the home crowd provides would be huge. Gustafsson would likely come out energized and perhaps even take control of the match in the early going. 

However, crowd support can’t do anything about Jones’ reach and overall athletic ability. He will learn from his last fight with Gustafsson and likely add onto his historically great resume in the process.

 

Luke Rockhold Impresses

Jones’ victory was the headline of Saturday’s action, but Luke Rockhold looked dominant as well when he made quick work of Tim Boetsch.

In fact, Rockhold notched a victory in slightly more than two minutes, which was one of the fastest wins of his career. The magnitude of the stage gave the former Strikeforce middleweight champion a sizable audience to impress, and that is exactly what he did. 

Rockhold thrilled fans by submitting Boetsch via kimura on the way to an easy win.

 

Anthony Johnson Destroys Phil Davis

In the fight before the main event, Anthony Johnson gave fans a taste of what they were about to see from Jones when he destroyed Phil Davis. 

Johnson is a 205-pound specimen who mixes power and wrestling ability better than the majority of fighters in the sport. Gregg Doyel of CBS Sports deemed Johnson’s performance to be a beatdown:

Johnson won 30-27 on every scorecard and stuffed all eight of Davis’ takedown attempts.

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UFC 172: Key Storylines to Watch in Jon Jones vs. Glover Teixeira

The UFC picked a heck of a way to introduce itself to Baltimore.

In what will be the UFC’s first event in the city, light heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones will look to defend his crown against Glover Teixeira on Saturday at UFC 172. You wo…

The UFC picked a heck of a way to introduce itself to Baltimore.

In what will be the UFC’s first event in the city, light heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones will look to defend his crown against Glover Teixeira on Saturday at UFC 172. You would be hard-pressed to find a fighter who has more momentum right now than Teixeira, but Jones is the champion for a reason. 

Jones recently discussed the upcoming clash, among other things, with Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com:

Without further ado, let’s look at a few storylines to watch for in the light heavyweight title fight.

 

Something Has to Give 

There is no other way to put it: Something has to give when these two titans clash on Saturday.

Jones has successfully defended his title six times, and the only loss on his resume came in the form of a disqualification in 2009 to Matt Hamill. Jones was winning that bout until he threw illegal downward elbows, ending his undefeated mark for good.

On the flip side, Teixeira has lost twice before, but he’s riding a 20-fight win streak. In fact, he hasn’t lost since 2005 in just his fourth professional contest.

These two fighters haven’t lost in years, which means someone is going to experience unfamiliar territory on Saturday night.

 

Reach Versus Striking Speed

The key to the match may be the reach of Jones going up against the punching and striking speed of Teixeira.

According to UFC.com, Teixeira lands 6.91 significant strikes per minute compared to Jones’ 4.15. However, the champ’s accuracy checks in at 54.23 percent, while Teixeira is only at 47.97 percent. Teixeira has definitely been known to take chances, which partially explains the lower accuracy total, but if he can connect on a flurry of strikes, he may take control of the fight.

On the flip side is the significant reach advantage that Jones brings to the table.

According to CBS Sports, Jones’ unofficial reach is 84.5 inches, while Teixeira’s is 76 inches. 

Look for Jones, who has better accuracy and a longer reach, to counterbalance the striking speed of Teixeira.

It will be difficult for the Brazilian to avoid Jones’ strikes throughout that match because of the champ’s reach advantage, which means that striking speed may not come into play as much as some might expect.

 

How Much Substance Is Behind Teixeira’s 20 Straight Wins?

Luke Thomas of MMAFighting.com brings up an interesting point when discussing Teixeira’s 20 straight victories:

Teixeira might actually be the best light heavyweight in the sport, but to date, we don’t have clear cut proof that he is. All we have is his resume, which while impressive, doesn’t contain enough to credit him as being the division’s best. That doesn’t mean he can’t or won’t win. It just means if you’re picking him, you’re doing so based off of the unseen, not the seen.

He simply hasn’t faced anyone of Jones’ caliber yet. That may ultimately not matter, but if Jones gets off to a quick start, we could see some self-doubt creep into the challenger’s approach.

That isn’t a winning formula against someone as dominant as Jones.

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UFC Fight Night 39 Results: Most Notable Outcomes from Slate of Bouts

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira may be a legend in the UFC world, but it was Roy Nelson who made waves with a knockout victory in the most notable outcome of UFC Fight Night 39 on Friday in Abu Dhabi.
Before we delve into a more detailed look at the fight bet…

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira may be a legend in the UFC world, but it was Roy Nelson who made waves with a knockout victory in the most notable outcome of UFC Fight Night 39 on Friday in Abu Dhabi.

Before we delve into a more detailed look at the fight between Nelson and Nogueira, as well as that between Clay Guida and Tatsuya Kawajiri, here is a glance at the full results on both the main card and the preliminary card.

 

Roy Nelson vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

Nelson is known for his overhand right-hand punches, and he connected on a handful of them to knock out Nogueira.

UFC may be a violent sport, but Nelson was very gracious after his victory and even took to Twitter to congratulate his opponent (who is the only man to hold the Pride and UFC heavyweight titles) for his tremendous career:

To Nogueira’s credit, he was aggressive in the early going and hit on some jabs, but Nelson controlled this brief fight. He almost knocked out Nogueira right out of the gate with a right uppercut to the body and then another to the jaw.

Nelson eventually did knock out Nogueira in less than four minutes in the opening round and was already looking to the future while acknowledging his opponent in postgame comments, via Thomas Gerbasi of UFC.com:

“He’s a legend. If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t be fighting in MMA. … I want to fight for the belt. Let me start right there.” 

Nelson, who improved his record to 21-9, will certainly have some momentum going forward after this dramatic win. Whether he can turn that into bigger results, as it appears he wants to do, remains to be seen.

 

Clay Guida vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri

In the other headlining fight, Guida held off Kawajiri by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) in a fight that was much tighter than the one between Nelson and Nogueira.

Guida was impressive in the first round from the get-go, landing an overhand punch that dropped Kawajiri to the ground temporarily.

In the second round, Kawajiri was much better. The two fighters tangled against the fence for some time, and Kawajiri fended off a number of aggressive maneuvers from Guida. Still, it was clear who the better fighter was on this day.

In the third round, Guida showed his conditioning and finished off the fight with an impressive big slam takedown. While Kawajiri held his own throughout the contest, Guida was stronger and more aggressive and ultimately came away with the unanimous victory.

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UFC 170: Breaking Down Biggest Results of the Card

UFC 170 in Las Vegas was filled with plenty of exciting action and thrilling results.
While Ronda Rousey squaring off with Sara McMann was certain to draw headlines, it was far from the only result on the card that turned heads. 
Let’s dig i…

UFC 170 in Las Vegas was filled with plenty of exciting action and thrilling results.

While Ronda Rousey squaring off with Sara McMann was certain to draw headlines, it was far from the only result on the card that turned heads. 

Let’s dig into a discussion of some of the notable results of the card.

 

Ronda Rousey vs. Sara McMann

It was only fitting that two former Olympic medalists made waves at UFC 170 as the 2014 Games were ongoing in Sochi.

Rousey registered the TKO on McMann to pick up her seventh first-round victory and first win by TKO. Before defeating McMann, all of Rousey’s previous wins had come by armbar.

While Rousey eventually tallied the win, it was McMann who got off to a quick start. She held Rousey off and even got in a few blows of her own, but Rousey landed an impressive elbow right before finishing off McMann with a knee. 

The crowd wasn’t particularly pleased that the referee waved the match at 1:06 in the first. However, it was clear Rousey was the better competitor on the night.

 

Patrick Cummins vs. Daniel Cormier

Rousey wasn’t the only one to make headlines at UFC 170.

Daniel Cormier extended his perfect record to an impressive 14-0 with a first-round TKO of Patrick Cummins.

Cummins failed on an early takedown attempt, and Cormier took advantage by landing a number of shots and combinations. The bout was waved at 1:19, giving Cormier a decisive victory over Cummins.

Cormier was pleased with his wins in comments that were passed along by UFC.com: “I feel good because it’s my first finish in UFC. Training camp was long and hard and I prepared for a long fight. I’m going to stay in this cycle and be this healthy in every camp.”

Looking ahead, Cormier did enough to break into his new division’s rankings by beating Cummins. 

Cormier was ranked No. 4 at heavyweight and did more than enough to impress in victory at UFC 170.

 

Stephen Thompson vs. Robert Whittaker

Stephen Thompson and Robert Whittaker may have been squaring off in a welterweight bout, but it certainly thrilled fans.

Professional MMA fighter Sarah Kaufman apparently predicted the result before it started:

Thompson registered the TKO on Whittaker, but Whittaker performed admirably with his early jabs and boxing prowess. Thompson is known for his kickboxing skills, but Whittaker was able to hold that off early in the match.

However, Thompson eventually settled in and landed an impressive left punch to turn the momentum. That is when Thompson started attacking with hooks and numerous impressive blows, until the match was called at 3:43.

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