Jon Jones is an amazing fighter at basically every level, but the one knock on him is he lacks the pure stopping power of many of his contemporaries. There’s a bit of truth to that, sure, but to say Jones can’t finish opponents is somewhat silly.
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Jon Jones is an amazing fighter at basically every level, but the one knock on him is he lacks the pure stopping power of many of his contemporaries. There’s a bit of truth to that, sure, but to say Jones can’t finish opponents is somewhat silly.
Case in point? His 2011 victory over Lyoto Machida. Relive that fight here:
After dropping Machida with a superman punch, Jones locked in a front headlock and started working for a guillotine. While Machida got back to his feet, the taller Jones kept hold of his neck, adjusted his grip and tightened it up well past the point of escape. The referee stepped in, and Jones relinquished the hold but, in doing so, let a lifeless Machida drop to the canvas in a heap.
Eighteen months prior, Machida was the UFC light heavyweight champion and seemed all but unstoppable with a unique, inimitable fighting style. Jones still strangled the life out of him and discarded his body with a chilling indifference.
Jones will look to imitate that performance at UFC 214 on Saturday, with Daniel Cormier playing the role of Machida. If he can pull off something similar, it would go down as the greatest victory of his career.
It’s hard to imagine, but this time a year ago, Amanda Nunes was entering a bantamweight title fight as a challenger.
She was down on the card beneath names like Brock Lesnar and Jon Jones at UFC 200, ready to do battle with Miesha Tate at a time when …
It’s hard to imagine, but this time a year ago, Amanda Nunes was entering a bantamweight title fight as a challenger.
She was down on the card beneath names like Brock Lesnar and Jon Jones at UFC 200, ready to do battle with Miesha Tate at a time when it looked like Tate was just rounding into her own as a championship-level fighter.
Then some unusual turns of fate saw Nunes closing both the event and Tate’s title reign, obliterating the champion and setting up a date with Ronda Rousey for late 2016.
Rousey was to return from a sabbatical imposed by the left shin of Holly Holm at UFC 193, ready to emerge from the shadows after a year in exile to reclaim her place atop the women’s 135-pound mountain.
December 30 was the date. UFC 207 was the event.
And that’s about all that went right for Rousey.
After some promotion that was so bizarre and stagnant as to almost border on anti–promotion, Rousey stepped into the cage with Nunes with her trademark scowl and snorting intact. She passed the eye test, but once the bout started, it was clear that was the only test she would pass.
Nunes stalked Rousey from the opening bell, totally disrespecting the hands she’d tirelessly worked with coach Edmond Tarverdyan and disrupting the clinch work and bullying tactics she’d tirelessly worked since her years as an Olympic judoka.
At every turn, Nunes flustered Rousey, finally landing one big shot that changed the complexion of the fight. She then landed many more, sending Rousey flailing across the cage and chasing her down to deliver more punishment.
Though she never put her opponent on her behind, referee Herb Dean called a stop to the bout after only 48 seconds, with Rousey limply standing wasted against the cage.
UFC 213 on Saturday marks Nunes’ first defense since that dominant, star-making showcase. She’ll fight Valentina Shevchenko, over whom she already holds a win, in the main event.
Win or lose, though, everyone will always remember that time she did a number on the most famous player in the game and sent her reeling into retirement.
The moms.
Oh, buddy, you better not go after the moms.
There might be nothing in the world that will rile a guy up quicker than a comment about their mom, and that very much played itself out at the UFC’s Summer Kickoff press conference back in M…
The moms.
Oh, buddy, you better not go after the moms.
There might be nothing in the world that will rile a guy up quicker than a comment about their mom, and that very much played itself out at the UFC’s Summer Kickoff press conference back in May.
Sure, it didn’t happen that long ago, but it was so iconic as the type of absurdity so often seen in MMA that it warrants recapping given Kevin Lee and Michael Chiesa will settle their score this weekend.
It all starts pretty casually, with Lee wearing a comically overwrought shirt—wide open, of course—and bandana. In something of a starmaking turn, he’s taking digs at Chiesa while talking up the fight and his newfound place as a main eventer.
Relatively harmlessly, it first appears, Lee makes the comment, “I know his momma got tickets,” and seems ready to go on sassing his future opponent. He doesn’t get the chance, though.
Chiesa, not exactly known as a wild firebrand full of explosive outbursts, leaps from his seat and shouts: “You shut the f–k up about my mom!”
What ensues is the two men shouting over one another briefly, with Chiesa pointing and repeating variations of “don’t you ever talk about my mom” before he finally decides to take action. He declares his intention to “slap the f–k out of” Lee and storms across the dais to do just that.
The other athletes on stage range from horrified to cheerleading as the two lightweights meet in the aisle amid a horde of UFC security, who fail miserably at their job of breaking up the brawl when Chiesa eats a big overhand right. Things are eventually put to a halt after that.
Some people loved it, others thought it was the type of trashy silliness better suited to a Jerry Springer episode, but it undeniably got people talking about a pretty exciting fight that was otherwise likely to fly under the radar during the UFC’s busy season.
Check out the whole fiasco below (NOTE: video contains NSFW language), and tune in Sunday night on Fox Sports 1 to see who has the last laugh.
The moms.
Oh, buddy, you better not go after the moms.
There might be nothing in the world that will rile a guy up quicker than a comment about their mom, and that very much played itself out at the UFC’s Summer Kickoff press conference back in M…
The moms.
Oh, buddy, you better not go after the moms.
There might be nothing in the world that will rile a guy up quicker than a comment about their mom, and that very much played itself out at the UFC’s Summer Kickoff press conference back in May.
Sure, it didn’t happen that long ago, but it was so iconic as the type of absurdity so often seen in MMA that it warrants recapping given Kevin Lee and Michael Chiesa will settle their score this weekend.
It all starts pretty casually, with Lee wearing a comically overwrought shirt—wide open, of course—and bandana. In something of a starmaking turn, he’s taking digs at Chiesa while talking up the fight and his newfound place as a main eventer.
Relatively harmlessly, it first appears, Lee makes the comment, “I know his momma got tickets,” and seems ready to go on sassing his future opponent. He doesn’t get the chance, though.
Chiesa, not exactly known as a wild firebrand full of explosive outbursts, leaps from his seat and shouts: “You shut the f–k up about my mom!”
What ensues is the two men shouting over one another briefly, with Chiesa pointing and repeating variations of “don’t you ever talk about my mom” before he finally decides to take action. He declares his intention to “slap the f–k out of” Lee and storms across the dais to do just that.
The other athletes on stage range from horrified to cheerleading as the two lightweights meet in the aisle amid a horde of UFC security, who fail miserably at their job of breaking up the brawl when Chiesa eats a big overhand right. Things are eventually put to a halt after that.
Some people loved it, others thought it was the type of trashy silliness better suited to a Jerry Springer episode, but it undeniably got people talking about a pretty exciting fight that was otherwise likely to fly under the radar during the UFC’s busy season.
Check out the whole fiasco below (NOTE: video contains NSFW language), and tune in Sunday night on Fox Sports 1 to see who has the last laugh.
MMA is often swift with its violence.
One second you’re on the couch with nachos, making your way toward the dip; the next, the guy you were rooting for is on his back hugging an invisible entity and you have no idea how it happened.
That’s largely how…
One second you’re on the couch with nachos, making your way toward the dip; the next, the guy you were rooting for is on his back hugging an invisible entity and you have no idea how it happened.
That’s largely how Cub Swanson fans felt on June 7, 2009, when their boy took on a rising featherweight by the name of Jose Aldo.
Swanson himself was no joke, sitting at 13-2 going into the bout, and the winner was expected to tackle Mike Brown for the WEC featherweight title—the most prestigious at the weight class in that era.
Aldo was, believe it or not, a pretty quiet 4-0 in the promotion to that point, though many suggested he might be something special given the ferocity with which he was dispatching opponents.
Against Killer Cub, it took him a mere eight seconds to confirm as much.
Coming out of the corner after his trademark “stare at the ground and ponder the destruction you’re about to unleash on some poor schmuck” setup, Aldo came to the center of the cage and launched into a single flying knee.
It landed.
Swanson, even now known for his durability going on a decade later, crumpled to the mat holding his face. Aldo followed up with some shots on the ground, and the fight was called.
All over. Eight seconds.
It was the birth of the greatest featherweight the sport had ever seen, as Aldo went on to torch Brown in his next bout and hold the belt for seven years, long after it was converted into the UFC featherweight title. (Aldo defends the lightweight strap Saturday at UFC 212 against interim champ Max Holloway.)
UFC women’s strawweight champion, and increasingly legendary purveyor of carnage, Joanna Jedrzejczyk returns to action in Dallas on Saturday, co-headlining UFC 211 in a bout with Jessica Andrade.
If successful, the Polish superstar will secure he…
UFC women’s strawweight champion, and increasingly legendary purveyor of carnage, Joanna Jedrzejczyk returns to action in Dallas on Saturday, co-headlining UFC 211 in a bout with Jessica Andrade.
If successful, the Polish superstar will secure her fifth title defense, only one away from the record for a female titleholder held by Ronda Rousey.
And Dallas is where it all began.
In 2015, Jedrzejczyk was a relatively unknown challenger tackling a champion who had won her belt on a reality show, Carla Esparza. The titleholder was the classic grinding wrestler who was known to give strikers fits, and she’d won five fights in a row going into her first title defense.
Most felt Jedrzejczyk was cannon fodder for a champion gaining momentum as she entered her prime.
Most were wrong. There was definitely cannon fodder in the cage that night, but it wasn’t Jedrzejczyk.
For nearly two rounds, the challenger relentlessly stalked the champion, stuffing her takedowns and punishing her for even trying. And not just “punishing”—punishing.
It was vicious. It was violent. It was nasty.
It was like something out of a nature documentary, the sinewy, lithe predator cornering its supper and finishing the job. You knew you were watching the arrival of someone special, someone who wouldn’t be beaten for a long time.
Two years later, no one has come particularly close. Esparza was never the same, and a host of other women have been left permanently broken or otherwise disfigured after being on the wrong side of some Polish power.
Check out some slow-motion highlights in the clip below to remember what happened the last time Joanna Champion took over Dallas before you’re watching her in action on Saturday night.
Jon Jones is an amazing fighter at basically every level, but the one knock on him is he lacks the pure stopping power of many of his contemporaries. There’s a bit of truth to that, sure, but to say Jones can’t finish opponents is somewhat silly.