I gotta say, Jon Jones and Quinton Jackson‘s appearance last night on Jimmy Kimmel Live! wasn’t the tense shout-off that we were afraid it would be. The UFC 135 headliners needled each other at every opportunity, but it was a light-hearted affair for the most part. No, Dr. Phil didn’t try to smooth out their rivalry. Quite the opposite, as you’ll see in part two after the jump.
Jon’s best line: [to Dr. Phil] “You’re a doctor…what’s wrong with this man?”
Quinton’s best line: [on Jon’s ears] “I thought you were the first black gremlin.”
I gotta say, Jon Jones and Quinton Jackson‘s appearance last night on Jimmy Kimmel Live! wasn’t the tense shout-off that we were afraid it would be. The UFC 135 headliners needled each other at every opportunity, but it was a light-hearted affair for the most part. No, Dr. Phil didn’t try to smooth out their rivalry. Quite the opposite, as you’ll see in part two after the jump.
Jon’s best line: [to Dr. Phil] “You’re a doctor…what’s wrong with this man?”
Quinton’s best line: [on Jon’s ears] “I thought you were the first black gremlin.”
Jon Jones has exceeded people’s expectations in every fight he has been in. Perhaps no fight exemplifies this fact more than his last fight with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. Jones dominated Rua in every moment of that fight. So are the expectatio…
Jon Jones has exceeded people’s expectations in every fight he has been in. Perhaps no fight exemplifies this fact more than his last fight with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. Jones dominated Rua in every moment of that fight.
So are the expectations for Jon Jones unreasonable? Absolutely not.
Jones is an awesome specimen of a fighter, and a puzzle that will not be solved for quite some time. His incredible reach advantage makes it incredibly hard for strikers to get inside and hit him, though a few shots have gotten through.
Because of his physical advantage, and his performances in the past, fans should have the highest expectations for Jones until he gives us reason to believe otherwise.
There’s been a lot of talk about Quinton “Rampage” Jackson being Jones’ first “real” test, but that’s what people were saying about Rua. After Rua’s sobering loss to Jones, many people have been offering up excuses on behalf of the former champ—degrading Jones’ dominant performance in the process.
The truth of the matter is that us fight fans demand a lot of a fighter before we can believe they’re one of the greatest ever. In the short history of this sport, there have been so many fighters that were touted as the future of the sport, but ended up disappointments.
We know Jones is a strong fighter, but we don’t yet know if he has the mental capacity to be a champion. Perhaps the biggest question isn’t whether Jones will lose, but, “how will he respond when he finally does lose?”
It’s completely reasonable to have high expectations for Jon Jones. He made defeating Rua look easy—and Rampage isn’t near the level of fighter that Rua is.
Jackson is, sadly, a one-dimensional fighter. Unless he comes out with a surprising game plan, Jones and his trainers won’t have much trouble preparing for this UFC 135 fight. This isn’t Jones’ first “real” test in the cage, but it is his first fight that will go towards cementing his legacy.
There is no limit to Jones’ potential, and the expectations for him could never be too high. Will Jones be the great fighter that we all want him to be? Or is he lacking the wisdom and patience to be one of the greatest fighters to have ever lived?
The picture that is Jones’ future will become more clear after this Saturday. Make sure you tune in.
UFC 135 goes down on Saturday at the Pepsi Center in Denver, CO, and it will feature a light heavyweight title bout between champion Jon Jones and former champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.Both fighters made an appearance side by side on Jimmy Kim…
UFC 135 goes down on Saturday at the Pepsi Center in Denver, CO, and it will feature a light heavyweight title bout between champion Jon Jones and former champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.
Both fighters made an appearance side by side on Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show on Monday evening.
“Once you talk to him, you’ll se how cocky he is,” Jackson responded to Kimmel asking them if they liked each other. “I would say it’s a thin line between being cocky and confident. When you reach a certain level then, OK, I see people being cocky now, I won’t say nothing, but this kid ain’t really fought nobody and he didn’t even defend his belt yet and he’s already talking down to me and stuff like that and just being cocky.”
Jones will be defending his title for the first time since he defeated Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 128. He knocked out the Brazilian Muay Thai expert in the third round.
Rampage recently defeated Matt Hamill at UFC 130 but left fans asking for more with a recent string of decision victories. He has gone the distance in six of his last seven fights.
In the co-main event, former UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes will take on Josh Koscheck, who accepted the fight on late notice after Diego Sanchez was injured.
Other main-card bouts include Travis Browne vs. Rob Broughton, Takanori Gomi vs. Nate Diaz and Mark Hunt vs. Ben Rothwell.
It all goes down on PPV this Saturday at 9 p.m. ET. Preliminary bouts will be available on Facebook and Spike TV.
Everyone who follows the UFC is excited about Saturday night’s Jon Jones-Rampage Jackson fight, but the UFC’s marketing efforts are mostly about attracting the many millions of Americans who have never heard of Jones…
Everyone who follows the UFC is excited about Saturday night’s Jon Jones-Rampage Jackson fight, but the UFC’s marketing efforts are mostly about attracting the many millions of Americans who have never heard of Jones or Jackson. That’s why the UFC gets so excited about putting fighters on shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live, and that’s why Jones and Jackson’s appearance on the Kimmel show Monday night was so effective.
Jones and Jackson sold their UFC 135 main event on a level that someone who’s never bought a pay-per-view could appreciate: Kimmel started their interview by asking them if they liked each other, Jones gave a one word answer (“no”) and it went from there.
There are a lot of easy-to-sell storylines on the Jones-Jackson fight, with Jones playing the role of the All-American nice guy and Jackson as the tough dude from the wrong side of the tracks. Whether that’s actually an accurate portrayal of those two is a separate question, but that’s an easy way to sell the fight to a new audience, and both fighters more or less conformed to those roles.
But at the same time, Jones is coming across as edgier than we’ve seen before in recent appearances, like Jackson is genuinely getting under his skin. And even though Jackson is the “bad guy” in this pairing, he has a natural feel for how to play an audience, and he showed off a good sense of humor on the Kimmel show.
Another angle the UFC likes to see played up is that Jones is the young upstart in MMA, while Jackson is the aging veteran who wants the belt back. Jackson was sure to mention that he plans on teaching the youngster a lesson.
“This kid ain’t really fought nobody and he’s already talking down to me,” Jackson said of Jones. “He’s a snot-nosed kid.”
Jones got off what I thought was the best line of the interview when he described his style and Jackson’s as “Spiderman vs. Frankenstein.” That sounds like some Hollywood studio executive’s idea for a wacky superhero movie, but it also sounds like something I’d like to watch. I have a feeling a lot of Kimmel viewers were thinking the same thing about Bones vs. Rampage.
(Editor’s note: Watch the second part of Kimmel interview below.)
Most MMA trainers seem content to lurk in the shadows while their fighters get the attention, but few are so adept at slipping the spotlight as striking coach Mike Winkeljohn of Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA.His partner, Greg Jackson, widely regarded as one t…
Most MMA trainers seem content to lurk in the shadows while their fighters get the attention, but few are so adept at slipping the spotlight as striking coach Mike Winkeljohn of Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA.
His partner, Greg Jackson, widely regarded as one the premier cagefighting savants, gets credit for nearly everything that happens in their gym, even as Jackson tirelessly refers to Winkeljohn as his “mentor.”
That’s okay for the lanky, decorated kickboxer. The silent but deadly technician behind many of the UFC’s most exciting finishes is happy to play the glue behind the glitter.
But his carefree days of anonymity appear numbered.
“What’s important to me is guys winning fights,” Winkeljohn told Bleacher Report in an exclusive interview. “If I’m doing the interviews and all that stuff, I don’t get to spend as much time with the fighters.”
He speaks with a gravelly voice that sometimes breaks down into an extra-low, awestruck “yeah” when particular fighters of his are mentioned. Thanks to a freak accident at the gym a few years back, he has one glass eye, adding irony to his longtime nickname, “Wink.”
His good eye remains focused on the prize—and little else—but Winkeljohn’s cherished seclusion is in serious jeopardy.
Indeed, his agreement to this interview is an acknowledgement as such. With a bout agreement signed for a welterweight title fight between stablemates Carlos Condit and Georges St-Pierre, Winkeljohn knows he’s about to get some airtime.
The fight, at UFC 137 in Las Vegas, will be the maiden voyage of Greg Jackson’s new “protocols,” as he calls them, by which he will handle title fights between teammates that have become an inevitable result of the success of his and Winkeljohn’s gym. Per these protocols, Coach Jackson will recuse himself from either man’s preparations and refer questions of Condit vs. GSP to Winkeljohn.
This scenario could very well repeat in short order, depending on the outcome of the main event at UFC 135 in Denver this weekend, when Jon Jones defends his title against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.
Winkeljohn is confident Jones is going to beat Rampage —wherever the fight might go. With this confidence comes the probability that his former student, Rashad Evans, will soon challenge Jones for the light heavyweight title.
“Rashad [Evans] is probably the most dangerous person out there for Jon Jones,” Winkeljohn stated. “Rashad’s got that explosiveness. We saw it with Sean Salmon and with Chuck. I think Rashad has the ability to knock anybody out when he gets his feet underneath him in the right place. He’s a fantastic wrestler too.”
That isn’t to say Winkeljohn thinks Jones wouldn’t be able to handle his former teammate:
“People have seen [Jon] throw long front kicks, they’ve seen him throw roundhouse kicks, they’ve seen him throw long punches, spinning elbows. But the difference now is that Jon’s throwing those strikes with much more intent, much more power,” said Winkeljohn. “Before they were distractions for his takedowns, now they’re just hurting everybody. He’s hurting everybody in the gym whenever he wants to.”
Should the Evans matchup be next for Jones, it would be the second time Coach Jackson bowed out of preparation for a teammate vs. teammate title scrap. Winkeljohn doesn’t share his partner’s need to stay neutral in these situations, though he understands Jackson’s point of view:
“It’s like your two sons fighting each other, what do you do? Greg cares about both guys, so he made the right move pulling out.”
But in the case of Condit vs. GSP, it turns out that Winkeljohn hasn’t done much work with GSP, which eliminates the potentially icky feeling of using intimate knowledge of the fighter against him. Winkeljohn has learned most of what he knows about GSP from tape and says they’re studying his habits closely.
Condit is a local boy, born and raised in Albuquerque, and Winkeljohn says it’s been exciting watching the city rally behind him. Condit’s last three fights have been KO/TKO victories, and the final two finishes, says Winkeljohn—a left hook against Hardy and a flying knee against Dong Hyun Kim—were strikes and combinations they had specifically trained for.
Carlos Condit is disciplined and studious in the gym, according to Winkeljohn, and seems to possess that coveted “X-factor.”
“Carlos is just a fighter. He’ll just do it,” Winkeljohn said. “He’s that guy who digs deep and just does it. He believes in himself and that’s going to play out. If Georges plays that safe game, which I think he might a little bit, he’s going to find himself in a bad situation against Carlos.
“Don’t get me wrong, Georges is the best out there. And you know, we’ll have to defend the takedown all day long —and we will get taken down. But Carlos is going to get back up. Carlos is going to try to hurt Georges every chance he gets.
Coach Winkeljohn may not cherish the spotlight, but he better get used to it—especially if his fighters keep striking their way to highlight-reel finishes, and his partner continues staying away from high-profile bouts between the embarrassment of top-tier talent and riches at Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA.
Huge UFC news broke today when it was announced that legendary light heavyweight fighters Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Dan Henderson will fight at UFC 139 in November.This PRIDE throwback fight will be huge for the UFC light heavyweight rankin…
Huge UFC news broke today when it was announced that legendary light heavyweight fighters Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Dan Henderson will fight at UFC 139 in November.
This PRIDE throwback fight will be huge for the UFC light heavyweight rankings as “Hendo” makes his return to the division. But where does the now-former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion currently sit in the division?
To answer that question, we need to take a closer look at what is currently happening in the Octagon at 205-pounds.
Jon Jones and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson will determine the top dog in the division this Saturday night when they do battle at UFC 135 this upcoming weekend. As awesome as these two fighters are, though, they are only two of a now unbelievably stacked light heavyweight division.
So let’s see who the Top-10 205-pound fighters in the UFC currently are!
Jon Jones has exceeded people’s expectations in every fight he has been in. Perhaps no fight exemplifies this fact more than his last fight with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. Jones dominated Rua in every moment of that fight.
