This time around, there was no doubt about the outcome.
The last time we saw Jon Jones in the Octagon, he went down to the wire against Alexander Gustafsson before escaping with his UFC light heavyweight title via narrow decision.
Saturday night, Jones once again went this distance. But this time, Jones put on a show. Jones picked apart a tough Glover Teixeira for 25 minutes in the main event of UFC 172. Jones retrained his title via unanimous decision, taking across-the-board 50-45 scores at the Baltimore Arena.
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It was Jones’ 11th straight victory. It was also his seventh successful light heavyweight championship defense, extending his own record in the division.
“It was a lot like who what we thought it would be,” said Jones (20-1). “We foresaw a lot of it. He was a tough dude.”
Jones seemed to show off dozens of his weapons in the opening round. From his standing elbows to his low kicks to body shots, Jones threw a little bit of everything at Teixeira, even landing an axe kick in the rounds closing seconds.
The heavy-hitting Teixeria’s best bet was to get in close and hope to catch Jones. He displayed this in the second round, as he tagged Jones several times in an exchange, temporarily slowed him down.
But that turned out to be Teixeira’s only moment of real advantage of the entire fight. And worse for the challenger, from there, Jones waded into Teixeira’s wheelhouse and took the fight to him in close. In one memorable third-round exchange, the two fought in close in the clinch, and Jones wrecked the Pit fighter in close, opening up a huge cut over Teixeira’s right eyebrow with his elbows.
By the championship rounds, things seemed academic. Teixeira lost his mouthpiece three times, prompting ref Dan Miragliotta to warn him he would deduct a point. But it was moot, as Jones simply resumed picking Teixeira apart until the final horn.
“A lot of it was improv,” said Jones, who was a heavy favorite of the crowd, which included his NFL-playing brothers, Arthur and Chandler. “The game plan was takedowns and going at him from range. But I realized he was winding up on his punches, and you can’t do that when someone is on top of you. I realized I was a lot better hand fighter than he was.”
For his part, Teixeira, who had a 20-fight win streak which dated back to 2006 snapped, was gracious in defeat. “he surprised me,” said Teixeira (22-3). “My game plan was to push him, but hey, he’s a great champion.”