Tag: Jon Jones

It seems like only last week we were lamenting the chronic lack of depth in the UFC’s light heavyweight division.

Once the promotion’s marquee weight class, Jon Jones’ recent dominance over his light heavyweight peers had seemingly rendered the division void of any intrigue.

But over the past few weeks, Alexander Gustafsson and Daniel Cormier have apparently emerged as legitimate threats to Jon Jones’ crown.

Granted, the emergence of two contenders to the 205-pound throne hardly warrants breaking out the party hats, but the division has been so starved of a compelling supporting cast that I’ll take what little I can get.

The threat posed by Alexander Gustafsson is self-evident at this point. In a star-making performance, the Swede took the champion to the brink at UFC 165.

But what about Daniel Cormier, whose next bout seems destined to be at 205 pounds?

We know what the former Olympian is capable of, but should we reserve judgement until we see how he deals with such a significant weight cut?

Cormier’s struggles with the scale at the 2008 Beijing Olympics have been well-documented, so it’s not unreasonable to question whether the drop to 205 pounds will have a deleterious effect on his performance inside the cage.

The suggested headline for this piece included an amusing typo:

“Is Daniel Cormier a Legitimate Treat to Jon Jones?”

I looked at this Freudian slip of a headline and questioned whether my long-suffering editor’s typo is a more suitable headline than my own.

OK, so I’m stretching the truth a little. The inclusion of the erroneous headline was a post-hoc decision, since I felt I could get a little mileage out of the amusing slip.

My point stands, though.

Many fans think Cormier possesses the requisite tools to unseat Jones, but very few column inches have been dedicated to how the pair match up physically.

With the former Strikeforce Grand Prix champion coming down from heavyweight, the assumption seems to be that size and weight won’t be a major factor in the outcome of any eventual fight.

In reality, Cormier fights at heavyweight because he carries around a significant amount of extra body fat. His frame is more naturally suited to the light heavyweight division.

Additionally, the discrepancy in both size and reach appears almost insurmountable on paper, with Jones enjoying a five-inch height advantage and an astonishing reach advantage of almost a foot.

While Cormier coped masterfully with a somewhat similar handicap when he faced Josh Barnett, the 34-year-old has never dealt with anyone who excels at capitalising on his physical advantages in the quite the same way as Jones.

Of course, height and reach would be less of an issue if Cormier employed a similar style to his friend and AKA teammate Cain Velasquez, who is near-peerless at closing the distance and wearing down opponents against the cage.

The former Olympian is instead more content to remain primarily on the outside, popping in and out of range to deliver his surprisingly versatile attacks—his level changes have also turned into a thing of beauty.

Though capable of grinding opponents up against the cage, it’s hard to imagine Cormier being able to consistently close the distance and control the much-larger Jones.

Based on amateur credentials alone, Cormier would appear to hold the wrestling advantage. But as I am often at pains to point out, amateur wrestling credentials don’t necessarily guarantee success inside the cage.

That being said, if there is one particular area of intrigue in this fight, it will be whether the former Oklahoma state standout can bring his amateur wrestling experience to bear and take Jones to the mat.

Strain as I might, I can’t imagine this scenario actually playing out, nor any scenario that ends with Cormier’s hand being raised.

However, I’ve been wrong many times before. For the sake of the light heavyweight division’s health, this is one of those rare occasions when I would gleefully eat my own words.

 

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Unpopular opinion alert: Daniel Cormier has not done enough to deserve a shot at Jon Jones when he walks into the light heavyweight division.

Probably-only-slightly-less-unpopular opinion alert: Alexander Gustafsson shouldn’t have gotten an immediate rematch against Jon Jones after UFC 165, and does need at least a single fight before getting another chance.

Likely-most-popular-opinion alert: Make them fight each other.

After his win over Roy Nelson at UFC 166, Cormier is on his way to 205 to wrest the title from Jones, but he hasn’t exactly inspired excitement as his opposition has grown in stature.

He exploded into the public consciousness with a romp of Antonio Silva in 2011, then rousted Josh Barnett with similar enthusiasm to secure his place in the heavyweight top 10.

Unfortunately, his momentum was derailed a little by the agonizing death of Strikeforce, his home for those fights, and now in his two bouts in the UFC he’s done a whole bunch of nothing.

He held Frank Mir against the cage for fifteen minutes on FOX to pick up a win, and he touched up a wheezing Nelson from distance for fifteen minutes at UFC 166 to pick up another. He’s 13-0 with an Olympic pedigree and a pretty marketable personality, but there’s almost no evidence over the past year that he’s something to get excited about.

So with that considered, why not make him fight the guy that everyone has been excited about for the past month? Gustafsson pulled off a starmaking turn at UFC 165, a true Rocky moment where the gutsy challenger won’t go away and gives an arrogant champion all he can handle before taking a loss.

Let’s not forget how Rocky II played out either, folks. But that’s another piece for another day.

For Gustafsson to get back to Jones, it’s become accepted that he’ll have to fight someone else. Booking him around the same time as Jones to keep their schedules in line seems to be on the table, and there’s nothing to suggest that Cormier couldn’t be ready by February.

He was, after all, cornering Cain Velasquez in his title fight within minutes of his own bout ending.

A Cormier-Gustafsson meeting would give both men what they need.

Cormier could prove that he’s truly elite, not the up-and-down guy he’s been since winning the Strikeforce Grand Prix. He could earn his fight with Jones in the cage with his performance, not on Twitter with his personality.

Gustafsson could prove that the Jones bout was no fluke, that he really is getting exponentially better and really is the best hope to dethrone the seemingly invincible champion. A win over Cormier, who is a stylistic nightmare similar to the one we all believed Jones to be, would definitely prove he’s still at the top.

So book it. Put these two guys together and see who earns their chance at Jon Jones. It gives both men the bump they’ll need to fight for the title, and there’s a good chance they’ll bring out the best in one another knowing what’s on the line.

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