UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones will prove why he enters UFC 165 as the prohibitive favorite when he demolishes Alexander Gustafsson.
Jones will headline the festivities at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre by facing Gustafsson, whom the UFC is desperately trying to promote as the man ready to give Jones a run for his money.
Don’t let the marketing fool you: Jones will cruise to his 10th straight win in dominant fashion.
Jones has not lost a fight since his disqualification against Matt Hamill in 2009. While he was well on his way to getting his hand raised, “Bones” was punished for an illegal elbow that stopped him from piling up a gaudy undefeated record.
Besides that one hit deemed dirty, Jones has proven time and time again why he is the sport’s fiercest competitor and why nobody should expect to see fall down on the mat this Saturday.
The 6’4″, 205-pound New Yorker boasts freakish athleticism in the ring. He possesses the quickness of a lightweight with the strength of a burly heavyweight. No other UFC fighter can match his 84.5″ reach.
He can beat his opponents anyway imaginable. With four wins via knockout, Jones typically defeats his foes through a war of attrition, but he succeeds when he tries to bring his victims down. According to FightMetrics.com, he has produced a deadly combination of 3.94 strikes landed per minute and a 62-percent takedown accuracy.
Gustafsson is no slouch, having bounced back from a loss to Phil Davis during his first fight to win his last six. Standing at 6’5″, the Swedish lightweight is one of few fighters that can challenge Jones’ size.
But Gustafsson does not possess the athletic grace of Jones, who closely resembles what scientists would produce if they were tasked with assembling the perfect fighter.
Height is just one factor in the equation. Jones still has a larger reach along with more agility and power than his opponent. Now Bones finally found an adversary that can stare him in the eyes before receiving a beating.
Jones is yet to have been taken down, and the champion has only defeated himself with a questionable call.
Another win would give Jones the sport’s longest active winning streak as well as the biggest stretch of wins ever for a man in his weight class. A win further proves that Jones is a man among slightly less capable men. (You call a professional UFC fighter a boy.)
Gustafsson is a solid competitor but will be no challenge for Bones in Toronto. Expect a one-sided fight that firmly solidifies Jones’ greatness.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com