UFC 135 has just passed us by.
In the main event of the evening, we saw Jon “Bones” Jones successfully defend his title for the first time, submitting Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in the fourth-round.
Jones was able to use his reach to keep Rampage at a disadvantage throughout most of the fight. And once Rampage began to tire in the later rounds, Jones was able to put his grappling skills to work.
It was a remarkably impressive performance and also revealing in many ways.
Jones is still a young fighter and because of how quickly he has risen to the top of the UFC’s light heavyweight division, many questions surrounding him have been left unanswered.
Tonight, we finally received answers to many of the inquiries surrounding the UFC’s youngest ever champion.
Here’s five things we learned about Jon Jones, based on his performance at UFC 135.
His Takedowns Are Not Unstoppable
Before his fight with Rampage, Jones wrestling had looked unstoppable. Almost anytime he wanted to get a fight to the ground he was able to do so and with relative ease.
However, Rampage was able to stop most of Jones takedown attempts throughout the fight and also get back to his feet after being taken down.
Based on this fact, we can deduce that several of the elite members of the light heavyweight division might be able to contend with Jones takedowns.
Names like Rashad Evans and Lyoto Machida come to mind.
He Can Take A Punch
Jones’ reach makes it nearly impossible to get inside his range, and before this evening, no one had landed a good, clean power shot on him.
This led to a lot of speculation that Jones might not be able to take a good punch. Was the secret to defeating him just landing a solid shot?
Well, that myth has been busted.
Rampage didn’t land any full-on haymakers tonight, but there were a few points where he landed cleanly and Jones didn’t seem bothered.
Am I saying that Jones has an iron chin? No.
But it’s definitely been confirmed that it’s not made of glass.
Cardio Is No Longer An Issue
Another speculative strategy for defeating Jon Jones was dragging him into the later rounds and finishing once he started to gas.
The source of this idea was Jones fight with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 128.
Jones dominated the fight, but was noticeably tired by the third-round, as he was breathing heavily.
Clearly, he has devoted some time since then to upping his cardiovascular endurance because the fight tonight went to the fourth-round and Jones still looked reasonably fresh.
His Ego Is Continuing To Grow
Over the past few months it has become evident that the once humble Jones is beginning to develop a considerable ego.
His performance tonight only reinforced this sentiment.
Jones started the fight using some sort of crouch-walk, seemingly not even taking his opponent seriously.
Later in the fight, when the buzzer sounded to indicate the end of a round, Jones picked Rampage up while on his knees and sort of shoved Rampage backwards over his head—it’s difficult to describe, but trust me, it was unsportsmanlike.
There were also points in the fight were Jones dropped his hands and walked directly towards Rampage, showing no respect for Rampage’s boxing.
Jones talent is undeniable, but he should keep his ego in check, lest he risk losing fans.
Jon Jones is the Real Deal
Believe it or not, there were people still doubting the abilities of Jones heading into his UFC 135 bout.
I suppose I can see their argument.
Before fighting Shogun, Jones hadn’t beat anyone overly significant. Although he did beat Shogun, Shogun was coming off surgery and a long lay-off.
UFC 135 was the first time that Jones faced a legitimately elite opponent, without any potential excuses, and he dominated.
Now, no one can question that he deserves to be the UFC light heavyweight champion.
Jon Jones is for real.
Be sure to check out Bleacher Report for all things UFC 135. B/R is your home for MMA, from pre-fight predictions to in-fight coverage, and post-fight analysis…which you can check out at our event hub.
Andrew Barr is a Featured Columnist for Bleacherreport.com. For updates on what’s happening in the world of MMA, follow him on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/AndrewBarr8
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com