The UFC returns to Stockholm, Sweden Saturday night with its biggest European event to date, headlined by hometown favorite Alexander Gustafsson taking on the surging Anthony “Rumble” Johnson in a five-round, No. 1 contender’s fight.
If Gus…
The UFC returns to Stockholm, Sweden Saturday night with its biggest European event to date, headlined by hometown favorite Alexander Gustafsson taking on the surging Anthony “Rumble” Johnson in a five-round, No. 1 contender’s fight.
If Gustafsson wins in front of his fellow Swedes, we’ll get to see the much-anticipated Jon Jones vs. Gustafsson rematch. Johnson has the opportunity to take the title shot from the No.1-ranked Gustafsson and become the next challenger for Bones.
But can he stop Gustafsson?
Since settling down at light heavyweight, Johnson has been a force. In his first UFC run, he quickly became a contender at 170 pounds but couldn’t come in on weight consistently. He made a pit stop at middleweight for his January 2012 UFC fight with Vitor Belfort but got sick while cutting weight and had to consume fluids hours before the weigh-in at the request of doctors.
He hit the scales at 197—11 pounds over the middleweight limit. The bad cut sapped Johnson of his energy nearly right out of the gate in the fight with Belfort, who submitted Rumble with a rear-naked choke in the first round.
The UFC cut Johnson after that fight, and he set out on his journey to fight his way back and find an appropriate weight class. After winning six fights outside the Octagon, including a victory at heavyweight over former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski, the UFC gave him a second chance, this time as a light heavyweight.
He wasn’t given any warm-up fights in his return to the UFC, as his first opponent was Top Five-ranked Phil Davis. Mr. Wonderful made his way to the top of the UFC light heavyweight division with his standout wrestling skills as well as his freakish athleticism and unique submission game, and he was coming off a win over Lyoto Machida.
Johnson stuffed all eight of Davis’ takedown attempts and proved to be the superior striker by tagging Davis a number of times with hard right hands and uppercuts. He outstruck and outmuscled Davis and proved that he had finally found the right weight class to make a run at a UFC championship.
In his second fight back in the UFC, Johnson knocked out Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in just 44 seconds. He stormed through the Brazilian former amateur boxer, winning his eighth straight fight since the Belfort loss.
The raw power possessed by Rumble is a problem for any opponent. He shoved off the takedowns of Davis, and it will be interesting to see if Gustafsson can get the fight to the ground, as he was able to take Jones down right away.
Johnson has honed his striking under the tutelage of Henri Hooft, and he trains with a world-class team of fighters in the Blackzilians, including former UFC champion Rashad Evans. His bout with Gustafsson will be a battle of two of the best strikers in the division, and Rumble will most likely need to put The Mauler away early in order to win.
Gustafsson has proved he can handle a five-round war. He will have the cardio advantage over Johnson, and over the course of five rounds the Swede will most likely remain the fresher fighter.
Gustafsson is the taller and rangier of the two, and he will likely use his wide stance and quick jab to try to keep Rumble at bay. Gustafsson took a lot of punishment from Jones in the last few rounds back at UFC 165, so he will most likely be able to weather a substantial amount of the early storm from Johnson.
Johnson might have to come out of his comfort zone of hard counterpunches against the tall and lanky Swede. He possesses some of the most powerful hands in the sport and has looked unstoppable in his return to the UFC. If he can push forward and get inside, he can land the powerful shots that he will need to win the fight.
Will he be able to take out the No. 1 light heavyweight in the division and extinguish the plans for a Gustafsson vs. Jones rematch? The style matchup favors Gustafsson, but if Johnson can put him away, he will have shown that he is a legitimate threat to Jones’ title reign.
Anthony Johnson is a night owl these days.
The UFC’s No. 3-ranked light heavyweight arrived in Stockholm, Sweden, late last week to prepare for Saturday’s title eliminator against Alexander Gustafsson. At least some of that prep work involv…
The UFC’s No. 3-ranked light heavyweight arrived in Stockholm, Sweden, late last week to prepare for Saturday’s title eliminator against Alexander Gustafsson. At least some of that prep work involves keeping late hours.
To stay acclimated for an event scheduled to kick off at 2 a.m. local time, Johnson told Bleacher Report he’s keeping his body clock on Florida time. That means he’s staying up all night, starting his hotel training sessions at 2:30-3:00 a.m. and getting what little sleep he can—he says he doesn’t need more than a few hours each day—during normal business hours.
Oh yeah, and for a native of Georgia who now makes his professional home with the BocaRaton-based Blackzilian fight team—Stockholm in January? Not necessarily his choice for the best weather.
“It’s an experience,” Johnson said Tuesday. “The sun doesn’t stay up very long over here, but I’m doing the best I can with it.”
Stakes will be high when he meets Gustafsson in the cage this weekend. The winner likely gets a shot at Jon Jones’ 205-pound title later this year provided the champion can put his current drug-related scandal behind him.
This bout also marks Johnson’s return after last year’s UFC-imposed suspension.
The fight company originally put Johnson on the shelf indefinitely when Bloody Elbow’s Brent Brookhousereported that the mother of the fighter’s children had filed for a restraining order against him in Sept. 2014. Brookhouse also reported that Johnson had pleaded “nolo contendere” in 2010 to a previous misdemeanor charge of domestic violence and was sentenced to three years of probation.
In Nov., the petition for the restraining order was dropped, and the UFC lifted his suspension. Johnson continues to assert he’s innocent of those most recent allegations.
Here, he talks to B/R MMA about serving his suspension, fighting Gustafsson in Sweden and the division’s embattled champion.
Bleacher Report: A lot has been made of what the atmosphere will be like on fight night. It’ll be a big stadium, and the UFC has drawn well in Sweden in the past. Do you believe that a guy can have a home-field advantage in MMA? Is that a real thing?
Anthony Johnson: I think a guy can have home-field advantage, but I think this is the type of fight where he won’t have home-field advantage. We both know what’s on the line. We both have our own goals and things like that, so we’re both going to go for it no matter what.
B/R: This is the fight you wanted; you lobbied for this fight against Gustafsson. What made you specifically want to fight this guy?
Johnson: Everybody else in the Top Five were either hurt, or they already had a fight, except for me and him. So I was like, why not? Glover Teixeira had just lost to Jon (Jones), Rashad Evans—my teammate—was hurt, Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones were fighting. I didn’t want to sit around and wait, and there was no point in me fighting anybody that was ranked lower than me because, to me, that’s downgrading myself. That’s not me saying that I’m better than anybody else, but I’m in this to be the best. So, to me, the next choice would be Gus, so I asked him to fight me and he said, “OK,” basically.
B/R: When you were on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani a little while ago, you said some of the things Gustafsson had said made this personal for you. Do you still feel that way? Is there any kind of a grudge happening here?
Johnson: No, no, no. When he said that I needed to win a few more fights, at that moment, he was talking like he had an “S” on his chest, but I think that was just kind of in the moment. So far, he’s been respectful, and I’ve always had respect for him. I have respect for anybody that does MMA. To me, he’s a good example of what a fighter and a gentleman should be like in this sport.
B/R: He’ll obviously be the most high-profile guy you’ve fought since coming back to the UFC. Can you put in perspective what beating him would mean for your career?
Johnson: I don’t know. To me, it will prove that I am one of the best. That’s all it will prove to me, that I do deserve to be in the Top Five. That’s what this fight is about to me—it’s about seeing what level I’m really at. It’s not about getting to a title. I haven’t thought about getting to a title. Everybody else talks about the title. To me, I just want to see if I’m really a Top Five fighter, if I deserve to be in the Top Five.
B/R: When you look at Alexander Gustafsson’s skills, what worries you the most about him?
Johnson: Nothing worries me. Of course he’s a great athlete and a great fighter, but he’s human. He will make mistakes. I’ll make mistakes in a fight; that’s just how the dice roll. I just think we’re two good fighters that are going to go out there and have a good time. Neither one of us are going to be worried because everything’s already done at this point. We just have to go out there and let it all out.
B/R: What are the areas where you think you’ll be better than him?
Johnson: I mean, everywhere. That’s just me. I’m confident in my abilities, you know? I think I’m going to be better everywhere, and I’m sure he feels the same way. That’s just what alpha male guys are like. When you train hard and you believe in yourself, you feel like you’re better than everybody else in every area. I think I’ll be better at stand-up, wrestling or on the ground. I feel like I’ve trained hard enough that I can say that.
B/R: Obviously, we talk about his length and his reach a lot. Tell me about what you did in training to try to prepare for that.
Johnson: Supposedly, he’s 6’5”. To me, he’s 6’4”. You know, people have to realize…well, I’ll save that for later.
B/R: You’re saying he’s only 6’5” in the media guide, maybe?
Johnson: Yeah, you know how it is. Like in the NFL, they give you that extra inch and all that other stuff. Some extra weight to make you look even better.
You know, man, as far as reach, I don’t think reach is going to be a problem. I think his reach is like an inch longer than mine. He doesn’t have Jon Jones arms, basically, is what I’m saying. But the tools that he has, he uses them very well. I don’t have any doubt that this man is going to come out there and really try to lay it on me. I’m pretty sure he has no doubt that I’m going to really try to lay it on him. Both of us believe in our skills, and we’re just going to go out there and do our best.
B/R: I saw on the UFC: Road to the Octagon special that he’s said he thinks his style will be your “kryptonite.” What do you think he means by that?
Johnson: I guess I don’t know. We’ll see. I’m definitely eager to see what kryptonite he has. But once again, he’s an athlete, he’s an alpha male, he believes in his skill set, he’s trained hard. He has the right to say that, you know what I mean? But when you say things like that, you obviously have to back it up. So, I’m eager to see what he has to offer me.
B/R: You just said a minute ago that you’re not worried about the title, but we do think the winner of this fight will be the No. 1 contender. We do think the winner of this fight will fight Jon Jones. Were you surprised to find out the stuff that’s going on with Jones right now, with the failed drug test for cocaine and the fallout from that?
Johnson: Whenever I found out, the first thing I said was, “Dummy.” But he’s human, and he’s young. I wish him all the best on whatever he’s doing to make himself better. My thing was, everybody was dogging him and stuff like that. I want everybody that was dogging him to look at their life and say at what point was their life absolutely perfect.
It just got to me, because everybody was on him hardcore. That just comes with the territory of being a champion, but like I said, don’t kick somebody when they’re down. To me, that’s what’s wrong with the world today. When somebody is down, the world will just keep stepping on you and kicking you while you’re down. Maybe there’s one person that wants to help you up, but you’ve got 10 other people kicking you while you’re down.
Everybody should be helping you up so you can make yourself a better person. But the world is just not that way. We’re not raised that way in this day and time.
B/R: Tell me a little bit about what happened back in September, when the UFC put you on indefinite suspension. You had just got back there (to the UFC) and had some momentum after winning a couple of fights and then that happened. Was that a scary situation for you, to have that uncertainty hanging over your career?
Johnson: Yeah, but I knew I didn’t do anything, so at the same time I was fine. But when you’ve got your life basically in somebody else’s hand,s it can obviously be depressing and upsetting. I feel like at this point in my life I’ve faced it all. I’ve overcome a lot, and I’m still here; I haven’t given up, and so I think I’m doing OK now.
B/R: What was your response in November when the charges were dropped and the suspension was lifted?
Johnson: I felt I was blessed. It was a big relief. I knew it would eventually happen; I just didn’t know when. I knew I didn’t do anything. I don’t wish that on anybody, but that’s over with now and nothing but great things have been happening since.
Chad Dundas is a lead writer for Bleacher Report. All quotes were obtained firsthand.
Unlike title shots that go on to disappear as quickly as they are promised, the winner between Alexander Gustafsson and Anthony “Rumble” Johnson will be the next man to step into the cage with Jon Jones. You can bet on that.
And all the…
Unlike title shots that go on to disappear as quickly as they are promised, the winner between Alexander Gustafsson and Anthony “Rumble” Johnson will be the next man to step into the cage with Jon Jones. You can bet on that.
And all the better for Jones, who’s been a vocal critic of the UFC’s propensity for paving a nice path for his biggest threats as they make their way to the top of the mountain. But he can’t say that here, as Dana White’s created a nice little matchup between the division’s No. 1 and No. 3 contenders in Gustafsson and Johnson, respectively.
It’s set to be a barnburner between the man who’s proven himself as Jones’ greatest threat and another man who could prove a difficult test.
Scroll on as we break this fight down from head to toe.
For a man who’s just entering his heyday, 27-year-old UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones could have the most fruitful year of his illustrious career in store for him in 2015.
Bones began the year the way he envisioned it and defended his belt for th…
For a man who’s just entering his heyday, 27-year-old UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones could have the most fruitful year of his illustrious career in store for him in 2015.
Bones began the year the way he envisioned it and defended his belt for the eighth consecutive time by outlasting second-ranked and previously unbeaten Daniel Cormier in the main event of UFC 182 on Saturday.
Aside from some swelling on his face, Jones (21-1) emerged from his captivating clash with Cormier, a former Olympic freestyle wrestler, void of any injuries of concern. And unlike 2014, in which Jones had just one fight—a unanimous-decision win over Glover Teixeira at UFC 172 in April—Bones plans to have a busier year in 2015.
At the UFC 182 post-fight presser, the New York native explained that making a permanent move to the location of his team, Jackson’s MMA, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, will prove a major step in his attempt to truly immerse himself in the sport.
My plan is to become the greatest fighter of all time, and it’s so feasible and it’s so attainable. All I got to do is just stay focused and keep believing just the way I believe and to keep working and I do believe 2015 will be the year that I solidify it. The big thing that I’m excited about is getting back to Albuquerque. I do not train in between fights and that’s pretty well documented. I’m sure a lot of people have seen pictures of me having this big gut and things like that. … But now that I live in Albuquerque it’s going to be huge. This next fight is going to be something else.
Bones will have several months to heal up from his war with Cormier, but in just 20 days, his focus will shift to the winner of the title-eliminator bout between top-ranked Alexander Gustafsson and third-ranked Anthony Johnson.
Gustafsson and Johnson Each Pose Different Problems for Jones
Gustafsson has won seven of his last eight bouts, with his lone loss in that span coming against Jones at UFC 165 in September 2013. Johnson is riding an eight-fight winning streak that includes wins over Phil Davis and Andre Arlovski.
Gustafsson has a 79-inch reach (5.5 inches shorter than Jones’), great boxing chops and solid Brazilian jiu-jitsu and wrestling skills. His footwork, hand speed and unpredictability enabled him to surprise Jones and take him into deep waters in their first encounter.
Gustafsson has a never-ending gas tank and the rare mental fortitude needed to push Jones to the brink again in a rematch. He just needs to get past arguably the most dangerous man in the division, Johnson.
If the venomous Johnson happens to topple Gustafsson, he’d be an equally concerning threat to Jones’ throne.
Johnson has a 78-inch reach, tremendous pop in all of his strikes and a trusty wrestling base. Since making the ascent to light heavyweight, Rumble has won seven straight bouts, including five by way of TKO/KO.
Jones Won’t Be Bumping Up to Heavyweight in 2015
Jones said he’ll entertain challenges from heavyweights when the proper time comes. Apparently, though, that time isn’t in the near future.
Jones sounded off on the matter at the UFC 182 post-fight presser.
Making 205 is not a challenge for me at all. It hasn’t been a challenge for me. For a long time I’ve been criticized for being too big for my weight class and I think it’s an excuse of people who don’t understand my success. I’m not too big for the light heavyweight division. I’m built the way I’m built (and) I have very skinny legs, but I make weight just fine. So I’m a true light heavyweight (and) I’ll be a light heavyweight for a long time.
Bones did, however, address the idea of some day locking horns with UFC heavyweight champ and Cormier‘s teammate, Cain Velasquez.
To be honest, I would fight Cain Velasquez in a heartbeat. I really would. I’d love to fight AKA’s best athletes, and I believe I could defeat them all (and) I believe our team is the best team in the world. … But fighting at heavyweight would be surely to entertain the fans and would have to be against a perfect opponent.
After beating one of the sport’s best grinders at his own game at UFC 182 on Saturday, UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones can begin to shift his focus to his next obstacle: facing the winner of the Alexander Gustafsson-Anthony Johnson fight.
He’ll c…
After beating one of the sport’s best grinders at his own game at UFC 182 on Saturday, UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones can begin to shift his focus to his next obstacle: facing the winner of the Alexander Gustafsson-Anthony Johnson fight.
He’ll certainly have several months to lick his wounds, but Bones won’t have much time to savor the satisfaction of besting arguably his greatest nemesis, former Olympic freestyle wrestler and second-ranked UFC light heavyweight Daniel Cormier.
That’s because on January 24, top-ranked former title challenger Gustafsson will lock horns with third-ranked Johnson in the main event of UFC on Fox 14 in The Mauler’s home country of Sweden.
Regardless of who prevails between Johnson and Gustafsson in their title eliminator bout, either man will provide Jones with yet another arduous and perplexing challenge. Johnson (18-4) has won eight straight fights since getting his walking papers from the UFC in early 2012, and Gustafsson (16-2) has won seven of his last eight bouts, with his only loss coming to Jones at UFC 165.
Gustafsson is widely considered the most complete fighter in the division, aside from Jones, and Johnson’s wrestling base and potent striking game have helped him emerge as one of the sport’s most dangerous athletes.
But the 27-year-old Jones, who already holds wins over five of the UFC’s current Top 10 205-pounders, sure looked like a man who is ready to take out the likes of Rumble and The Mauler against Cormier.
Jones not only scored on three of five takedown attempts, notching the first takedown ever against Cormier, but he also stuffed seven of the former Division I All-American wrestler’s shots. In the stand-up department, Jones outstruck Cormier 126-78, including 92-58 in the significant strikes category.
Despite Jones’ impressive performance, Gustafsson, who lost a controversial unanimous decision to Jones in their only meeting in September 2013, claimed to be less than impressed by Bones’ showing against Cormier.
Gustafsson was set to face Jones in a rematch for the belt in September at UFC 178, but he had to pull out of the fight in July after tearing his meniscus in his right knee during training. He TKO’d Jimi Manuwa in the second round of his last bout at UFC Fight Night 37 in March.
Vitor Belfort handed Johnson his last setback when he submitted him in his final fight of his first stint with the promotion at UFC 142 in January 2012. Since then, Rumble has beaten the likes of Jake Rosholt, Andrei Arlovski, Phil Davis and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.
According to OddsShark.com, Gustafsson has opened up as a minus-248 favorite to best Johnson (+192).
After an abundance of trash talk, a pre-fight press conference brawl, asking pussies if they’re still there, technical breakdowns, and moving betting lines, Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier duked it out for five rounds in an early “Fight of the Year” candidate, which went exactly how most of us thought it would. The main card of UFC 182, however, was pretty putrid.
Our excitement was at an all-time high, which is rare nowadays when it comes to MMA in general. This truly felt like 2008 all over again, but sometimes, we rely on nostalgia to compare upcoming fight cards that may or may not be worth viewing live.
Nevertheless, Jones vs. Cormier lived up to the billing, as both light heavyweights engaged in a dogfight at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, NV., this past Saturday night.
After an abundance of trash talk, a pre-fight press conference brawl, asking pussies if they’re still there, technical breakdowns, and moving betting lines, Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier duked it out for five rounds in an early “Fight of the Year” candidate, which went exactly how most of us thought it would. The main card of UFC 182, however, was pretty putrid.
Our excitement was at an all-time high, which is rare nowadays when it comes to MMA in general. This truly felt like 2008 all over again, but sometimes, we rely on nostalgia to compare upcoming fight cards that may or may not be worth viewing live.
Nevertheless, Jones vs. Cormier lived up to the billing, as both light heavyweights engaged in a dogfight at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, NV., this past Saturday night.
Truth be told, their fight couldn’t have come any sooner to save the day. There was uncontrolled excitement running through our veins Saturday morning, but after the FOX Sports 1 and Fight Pass prelims concluded, we were better off rummaging through our Twin Peaks Definitive Gold Box Edition and watching some of our favorite episodes.
The prelims were off to a raucous start, with Marion Reneau pummeling Alexis Dufresne in a unanimous decision win, and making the latter look like she came straight out of those So You Wanna Fight? events we used to see on our PPV listing (they must be at #341 by now…talk about real oversaturation). The highlight from that fight was Dufresne’s pathetic corner, who had too much pride to throw in the towel and actually made it seen like their fighter could have bounced back when she lost every second of that fight.
After Omari Akhmedov and Evan Dunham returned to winning ways over Mats Nilsson and Rodrigo Damm, respectively, Shawn Jordan scored another highlight-reel knockout over the debuting Jared Cannonier. Then, Team Alpha Male witnessed some ups and downs, as rising prospect Cody Garbrandt scored a stoppage victory over Marcus Brimage with 10 seconds left in the round.
Although the happiness was short-lived, as Paul Felder, taking the fight on short notice, blasted Danny Castillo with a spinning back forearm that sent “Last Call” into the Himalayas. If Garbrandt was seen as one of the starlets of the under card, the undefeated lightweight stole his thunder minutes later, and even walked out of Las Vegas $50,000 richer. The downside is with the sheer volume of athletes competing inside the Octagon these days, it’s impossible for bar bros to remember their names come Monday morning.
The main card was supposed to be off to bang, since Hector Lombard was going to smother the returning Josh Burkman in seconds. However, the former WSOF welterweight title challenger hung in there, hands down and guns blazing, stepping up to “Showeather” and looked good early. Lombard eventually cracked Burkman enough times to convince us the scrap was a lot more lopsided than we initially thought, earning the unanimous decision victory and disappointing UFC President Dana White in the process, since he thought the winner should have tried harder to finish.
Then, it all went miserably downhill from there. You know, there are plenty of things to do on a Saturday night when staying in. MMA fans have sacrificed hitting the club or having a meaningful social life outside of the bubble, and that’s okay. But watching the next three fights (all involving popular fighters like Donald Cerrone, Nate Marquardt, and according to Fightland, the next Prime Minister of Japan, flyweight Kyoji Horiguchi), over the NFL wildcard playoff between the Steelers vs. the Ravens, Saturday Night Live, a black market copy of Birdman, or Louie on Netflix was an absurd decision. I’m not saying the main card of UFC 182 wins The 2015 Potato Award for Greatest-Hype Deflation, but it’s definitely worth consideration.
The main event was a straight-up dogfight, and even looked like a street fight at times. The battle was highly competitive for the first three rounds, as “Bones” was off to a flashy start, throwing strikes from every angle with every limb. It was the back-and-forth scuffle we hoped it would be, thanks to “D.C.” staying in Jones’ face and willing to close the distance, or better yet, nullify the champion’s reach advantage in the clinch. If the first round went to Jones, then it was fair to award Cormier the second.
The tide turned when Jones, who swore he could take down Cormier and presumably started this mess, took the Olympic wrestler down at will, and stuffed his adversary’s attempts, too. From that moment on, it seemed as if Cormier let the fight slip past him, with AKA’s Javier Mendez and Bob Cook yelling in his face while he sat on the stool before the fifth frame.
The challenger didn’t do much to finish the fight in the final round like he needed to, and instead, went for the takedown because of pride issues. He scored somewhat of a toss, and grappled with the champion when he should have separated and swung for the fences. As the fight concluded, Jones, who had given “D.C.” the crotch chop seconds after the final horn, blasted his adversary in his post-fight interview and told fans to return their “Break Bones” t-shirts. Finally, “Bones” embraced the heel persona, and did as good as Shawn Michaels did on The Barber Shop.
A while back, UFC announcer Bruce Buffer compared Jones to Muhammad Ali. Considering Jones was prepping for the Ryan Bader fight at UFC 126, and hadn’t even won his coveted 205-pound strap yet, some knew the comparison would eventually come to fruition, while others chose not to believe it. Ironically, leading up to this contest, there was a lot of talk as Jones being Ali, and Cormier serving as his Joe Frazier, even though “Bones” thought Alexander Gustafsson better suited the part.
However which way the media wants to spin it, Jones isn’t Ali, and quite frankly, he’s something even greater in the sport of MMA. Nobody talks the same way as they did when referring to Anderson Silva and Fedor Emilianenko, and with Georges St-Pierre absent from the whole scenario, Jones truly is the greatest fighter on planet earth right now, and maybe the greatest ever. It’s not like the main event was as close as Jones’ scrap against “The Mauler” at UFC 165.
When it comes to “Gus,” if the Swede beats Anthony Johnson later this month at UFC on FOX 14, he’s obviously next. But the division is so thin that “Rumble” would earn his spot against Jones if he pulls off the upset against the former title challenger.
But you have to wonder what happens after that. Jones sticking around to face his old foes would get tiresome, and maybe even pointless. Some are under the impression that “Bones” should move to heavyweight after his next fight, which would be the right call. If Jones was announced to face Cain Velasquez in four months from now, I’ll go out on a limb and say not only could he win the heavyweight title, he could even be favored. It’s all speculation at this point, yet this athlete is just too special, being 27 years old and already beating the division’s most dangerous fighters. We can say that he may not have even entered his prime yet, but we can also agree he’s wiped out everyone he’s had to in order to be called the greatest, with not much else to prove.
Apart from a lackluster PPV card, UFC 182’s main event was the perfect way to start off 2015, even though problems will continue to persist, like domestic abuse cases being thrown out the window, drug testing woes, odd MMA debuts, PPV price increases and the other nonsense we have to put up with. Apart from the cool Fight Pass library news, some other stuff has been getting us mildly intrigued, like Bellator in it to win it, Brock Lesnar’s rumored return, and the potential superfight involving Ariel Helwani vs. Front Row Brian at Cowboys Stadium (now the AT&T Stadium), stemming from their continued fight announcement rivalry.
Let’s not hold our hopes high for a groundbreaking year. We’re just praying it’s better than the last.
The UFC returns to Stockholm, Sweden Saturday night with its biggest European event to date, headlined by hometown favorite Alexander Gustafsson taking on the surging Anthony “Rumble” Johnson in a five-round, No. 1 contender’s fight.