Progress and Regress: A tale of two champions at UFC 239 | UFC Betting Sites

Jordan Breen looks back on a great night for Amanda Nunes and a lackluster one for Jon Jones at UFC 239.

UFC 239 gave us a lot to chew on. Hell, we got the fastest knockout in Octagon history. That said, I think the real takeaway from Saturday night is a tale of two champions and the divergent courses of two of the sport’s all-time greats.

Dual-division champion Amanda Nunes needed less than five minutes to go upside former bantamweight champion Holly Holm’s head, cracking her with a right head kick and following up with Robbie Lawler-esque coffin nails on the ground to seal the deal. Meanwhile, Jon Jones – arguably the greatest talent we’ve ever seen – barely scraped by Thiago Santos in a tepid kickboxing match. Side by side, UFC 239’s title doubleheader was both spiriting and unnerving, and perhaps revealing about the nature of natural talent.

No doubt, Amanda Nunes is a great athlete. However, as fans and media now espouse her to be the greatest woman to ever step foot in a cage, it’s important to note that things didn’t start that way. She was tapped out in her pro debut in a mere 35 seconds. For a large portion of her career, she had serious cardio issues, which is how she got pounded out by Alexis Davis of all people, and dropped a decision to journeywoman Sarah D’Alelio. In her third UFC bout, she started hot against Cat Zingano, then completely faded, got thrown on the floor and elbowed and punched into oblivion.

When I was in charge of Sherdog’s FightFinder, Nunes would email me almost monthly, demanding her profile picture be changed. She would send awkward photos of her in club dresses and high heels posing in a cage, as if these images had some currency or importance to her career. Now, she’s training full time at a major gym and has truly dedicated herself to MMA on a spiritual level and left the bullshit behind. Her growth since landing at American Top Team has been incredible and while maybe you have a dissenting opinion about the decision in the Valentina Shevchenko rematch, she’s been unstoppable.

Since the Zingano loss four years ago, she’s won nine in a row and forged a legacy, becoming the first woman to win UFC titles in two different weight classes. Better still, uncharacteristic for the promotion, the UFC seems content to let her defend her bantamweight and featherweight titles concurrently, which is not only the smart promotional idea, but also gives Nunes the chance to flex and continue to build upon her monumental accomplishments. Her next bout figures to be a featherweight title defense against the winner of the Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino-Felicia Spencer matchup, and should she be successful, she’ll be further entrenched as a legend. It’s a testament to what comes about when natural talent is fully dedicated to the cause.

On the other hand, we have Jon Jones, barely retaining his title against a former middleweight who got knocked out by Dave Branch.

I’m not knocking Thiago Santos in the slightest. In fact, he fought his ass off on one leg after janking his left knee up in the opening round. He’s one of the most threatening, potent strikers in the sport. He did his thing, and dammit, he almost pulled it off. However, that is largely due to the lackadaisical way that Jones fought. One of the most dominant, sensational ground-and-pounders we’ve ever seen in the sport, with the ability to takedown, trip and suplex any man, and he attempts one takedown in 25 minutes against a challenger who deficient on the ground? What fresh hell is this?

As always, Jones’ psyche is difficult to access. Just four months ago, he could’ve easily lost his light heavyweight title to Anthony Smith by disqualification if Smith wasn’t such a sportsman and opted to fight on after Jones stung him with illegal knees. Apart from his fantastic step-in elbow knockdown in the third round, Jones did almost nothing for five rounds, just idly sparring Santos at 75 percent, trying to coast to a victory. I don’t think he’s athletically regressed in any way, but strategically speaking, we have a living legend just playing with his food to his detriment. He almost blew this fight because he either didn’t take it seriously or willfully opted to fight like an idiot. The Vegas crowd booed for almost the entirety of the second half of the fight and rightly so, whether they were displeased with the lack of action or just the fact they were watching a superstar go through the motions intentionally.

I’ve seen some folks online try to ascribe Jones’ shiftless kickfighting to trainer Brandon Gibson, but I call foul on that. Gibson has expanded Jones’ standup repertoire, but ultimately, Jon Jones doesn’t go into fights with gameplans. As you might expect from such a cocksure vagabond, Jones does whatever he wants in fights. The Jackson-Wink crew gets him trained and gives him pointers on his opponent, but ultimately, Jones is no more controllable in the cage than he is out of it, when he’s crashing rental vehicles full of Funyuns, condoms and weed. Jones calls his own shots in this regard; do you really think his coaches would be upset if he put Santos on the floor and started elbowing him?

This fight should have been the end of Jones at 205 pounds. He should have taken Santos down immediately, mauled him on the floor and finished him. Instead, he horsed around and almost lost everything. In fact, many fans and media scored the fight 48-47 for the peg-legged Santos. Now, instead of the narrative being Jonny Bones moving up to heavyweight to take over when vanquished rival Daniel Cormier retires, we have some people clamoring for a rematch. A rematch, against a fighter that Jones could’ve finished within 10 minutes if he had actually applied himself and utilized his best skills and stylistic advantage.

Maybe it’s a fair assessment that Jones fights down to his competition and that in his last two outings, he simply didn’t take Smith or Santos as serious threats, hence his goofing about. After all, we’re not that long removed from his rematch with Daniel Cormier, where he showed a legitimate killer instinct and finished the deal with a head kick and vicious punching follow-up. However, there’s no virtue or payoff to that instinct.

In the absence of Conor McGregor, Jones is the biggest draw the UFC has and for him to intentionally lollygag and fuck around does no one any favors. It sours his own brand, disenfranchises fans and stagnates the momentum of his own career. He’s already done enough damage to his own career’s progression, the last thing he needs is to deliberately fight lazy. It’s self sabotage. He talks a big game about how he wants to be remembered as the greatest ever, and many already regard him that way. However, you’d be daft to think that Jones isn’t capable of more, yet he seems hellbent on ensuring that it doesn’t happen. Jones could easily be a two-division champion right now like Nunes. It’s not like he didn’t stunt on Cormier twice. But, for whatever reason, conscious or unconscious, he refuses to take the necessary steps.

Jones is certainly the best light heavyweight ever, but he should already be working on being the best heavyweight ever. Amanda Nunes seized her opportunity and pushed it to the max. Jones has had every opportunity an athlete could ask for and squandered them. If anything, UFC 239 gave us a concrete notion of the fact that hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.