UFC is kicking off 2015 in style with the long-delayed and much-anticipated light heavyweight title fight between champion Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
Jones and Cormier were originally scheduled to fight in September, but the champion was forced to pull out of the bout with a knee injury that required surgery. Even though that did stall some of the momentum, these two have built such an explosive rivalry leading up to the fight that it’s still one of the biggest matches of the year.
While the entire event is built around the main event, UFC has stacked the card to make sure everyone remembers the first event of the new year. Here’s everything you need to know before the show begins tonight.
Where: MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas
When: Saturday, January 3
Start Time: UFC Fight Pass prelims start at 7 p.m. ET; Fox Sports 1 preliminary card starts at 8 p.m. ET; main pay-per-view card starts at 10 p.m. ET
Watch: Pay-per-view
Live Stream: UFC.TV; Fox Sports Go (preliminary card)
Main Event Analysis
As you can see from the video embedded above, there is no love between Jones and Cormier. Even though that happened prior to their originally scheduled bout last year, the lead-up to the match hasn’t gotten much friendlier.
Cormier was happy to have more time to prepare for his first championship fight in UFC, telling Steven Marrocco of MMAJunkie.com in August that his knee was also in bad shape before Jones had to withdraw:
I would be outside of myself to not say I went into this fight knowing my knee was pretty jacked up, and I was going to fight through it to get a title.
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I’ll get a full training camp now. When I heard Jon was hurt, now him and (Alexander) Gustafssson are on the same schedule in order to be healthy. So my first question was, ‘I don’t have to go behind Gustafsson again now, right?’ And I was assured that it’s going to be me in January. He’s not going to take my place again.
However, according to a report by Kevin Nicholson of MMAInjury.com, Cormier‘s knee problem will present a problem because of what Jones likes to do:
As the mammoth fight between Cormier and Jon Jones approaches, there is one concern that I have for Cormier– Jones’ push kick (aka the oblique kick.)
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Therein lies the danger for Cormier’s damaged right knee. Or his healthy left knee for that matter. If Cormier eats enough of these kicks to his left knee, causing him to switch out of his orthodox stance and expose his right knee, the consequences could be severe.
Only Cormier knows the full extent of the damage to his knee, but Jones does like to attack the legs to take away his opponent’s mobility. That sets up the rest of his offense later in the fight.
There’s also the question of mind games being played, mostly by the champion.
While Cormier has largely kept things civil, Jones has gone out of his way to criticize the challenger any chance he gets. The UFC light heavyweight champion poked fun at his opponent’s body type in a conference call, via Marrocco:
I would [sic] say there’s anything I necessarily like about him. I do respect that he’s able to use his frame so successfully, being a short guy and a thicker guy. When you look at him, his body type doesn’t scream athlete, but he’s been able to do some amazing things, both in the sport of wrestling and his MMA career.
That’s about as backhanded a compliment as Jones can give Cormier, but the champion has to be prepared for what his opponent can do.
Cormier isn’t a traditional light heavyweight. He fought as a heavyweight with Strikeforce and in his first two UFC fights, so he understands how to work against bigger and stronger opponents than Jones. He’s also one of the best pure wrestlers in the sport, boasting a perfect takedown defense and strong strike defense percentage (70), via UFC.com.
Jones is able to overwhelm his opponents because of his long limbs and ability to adapt styles, but Cormier is the best wrestler he’s ever gone up against. Even with a 21-1 record, the champion has had problems in recent fights against Alexander Gustafsson and Glover Teixeira despite being awarded unanimous-decision wins.
Cormier isn’t going to be intimidated or out of his element against Jones. Unfortunately, it’s hard to bet against the champion in this spot until someone is able to stop him. No one on the roster presents a bigger threat than Cormier, but Jones is going to be too much over five rounds and will earn a victory from the judges.
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