Immediately after his hand was raised in the Octagon, this past Saturday night at UFC 126, Jon Jones was told he would be receiving the Light Heavyweight title-shot in just six weeks against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. The news brought Jones to his knees and he accepted the challenge with huge excitement and appreciation after hearing his Jackson’s Submission Fighting teammate, Rashad Evans had to pull out of the title-tilt due to a knee injury. Jones is not deterred from taking this fight, as he manhandled Ryan Bader through two rounds before choking him out with 40 seconds left in the second and seems to have barely endured a scratch, plus he says he’s already in fighting shape. His only concern is to not over-train.
Within minutes of the fight announcement, tickets sales for the UFC 128 bout in New Jersey, (neighboring state to Jones’ home state of New York) were reportedly skyrocketing. And now the betting lines are showing Jones as the favorite by as much as -215.
It’s not that surprising seeing as Shogun hasn’t fought since last May. And though he took the title from Lyoto Machida with an impressive KO in the first round, it has been over 10 months since we’ve seen him inside the Octagon, which almost makes him out of sight, out of mind. Currently all hype is squarely on Jon Jones who appears to be the biggest rising star in the UFC. However, with all the new attention this bout will be getting in the coming weeks leading up to the March 19th Main Event, we expect we’ll see a lot of movement on these lines, so if you think Rua’s experience can beat Jones’ youth then take advantage of his underdog value now which is as much as +175.
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