After that, Cormier says he’ll demand an immediate title shot against the winner of Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson, which UFC President Dana White has implied he deserves. Cormier, who stays chubby all year round and had a near-death experience cutting weight as a wrestler before his second Olympic games in 2008, “is now confident he can easily make the weight cut,” according to MMA Fighting.
Also, if he beats Nelson, “Cormier said that after the fight he will publicly ask the UFC in the cage to “cut the line,” MMA Fighting reports.
(Who needs a tale-of-the-tape when we have the magic of Photoshop?)
After that, Cormier says he’ll demand an immediate title shot against the winner of Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson, which UFC President Dana White has implied he deserves. Cormier, who stays chubby all year round and had a near-death experience cutting weight as a wrestler before his second Olympic games in 2008, “is now confident he can easily make the weight cut,” according to MMA Fighting.
Also, if he beats Nelson, “Cormier said that after the fight he will publicly ask the UFC in the cage to “cut the line,” MMA Fighting reports.
Of course, all these well-laid plans can only mean one thing — Cormier is going to get smashed by Nelson. Sad, because we were picking D.C. before all this.
If Cormier somehow manages to survive the “looking past your current opponent” curse, do you think there’s a more deserving light heavyweight out there, nation? We can’t really think of a more compelling match up with champion Jon Jones at this point. All reasonable suggestions will be considered.
In an ESPN article by Brian Campbell earlier this month, UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman said he would love to take on UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
“I’ve got Anderson Silva on my mind, but if the fans wanted to see that fight…
“I’ve got Anderson Silva on my mind, but if the fans wanted to see that fight [against Jones] and the UFC wanted it to happen, I’m 1000 percent in.”
The newly crowned 185-pound champion stated beforehand he was not the type who says “Hey, you wanna fight?” but did note that he already ask to fight Jon Jones once before. Weidman stated that he threw his name in the ring for UFC 159 after Dan Henderson dropped out due to injury. According to Weidman, “I wasn’t a big enough name at that point, so they were like, no.”
It is unclear whether Weidman meant the UFC or Jon Jones’ camp turned down the fight.
A superfight with Jones would surely please the hardcore fans of the sport. However, there is a question of whether the battle would actually be a superfight for the more casual fans.
After all, the interest of casual fans is often what propels the UFC to put on less logistically sound bouts. For example, Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz and ChaelSonnen vs. Jon Jones were each put on partially because it could draw in more casual fans.
The less devoted of the MMA community are only now realizing the talent that Weidman wields. A second win against Silva at UFC 168 is a start, but Weidman likely needs two or three more high-quality wins for the UFC to truly consider a possible bout with Jones.
A superfight only makes sense for the UFC if big money can be made, as a champion has to lose some clout by stomaching a loss on his record. So for now fans simply have to hope both champions keep winning.
Jon Jones is set to defend his light heavyweight belt against Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 165, this September from Toronto, Canada.
On the surface you’d think that both hardcore and casual fans alike would be pretty excited to see such a transcendent f…
Jon Jones is set to defend his light heavyweight belt against Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 165, this September from Toronto, Canada.
On the surface you’d think that both hardcore and casual fans alike would be pretty excited to see such a transcendent fighter in action. You’d think.
Jones, the first fighter to ink a global deal with Nike, is a special brew of athleticism, creativity, viciousness and, most importantly, wrestling that the sport has never seen. Hell, he could win fights with his reach alone, which extends a LeBron James-like 84-plus inches.
Jones had developed an aura of invincibility, that at some point, while not something one can document, surpassed even that of Anderson Silva‘s…even before Silva’s loss to Chris Weidman.
Paired with his striking, Jones’ X-factor, the aforementioned wrestling, seems to allow him to dictate the fight from all angles on the X-Y-Z plane.
But enough praise for the fighter that is Jones. Let’s get back to his upcoming scrap with Gustafsson.
Randomized double-blind placebo control studies are considered by many the “gold standard” for testing.
So if someone wanted to definitively determine if people cared about this fight, and by exactly how much, they might go with a double bind. Instead, I will use some random Internet poll I strategically placed on my last article: “2nd Half of 2013 Set to Offer One of the Sweetest Stretches in UFC History.”
Considering we know nothing about who voted, let’s proceed.
Of the 1,700-plus people who voted, only 5.5 percent said “Jones vs. Gustafasson” was their most anticipated fight. Now when it comes to polling, it’s all about how you ask the question. So, if for example, I’d asked “Are you excited about ‘Jones vs. Gustafasson’ and are you going to buy the pay-per-view?” then it’s possible 90 percent of people would have responded with a “Hell yeah.”
So then maybe we can not definitively say that people are in fact not excited for this fight. And if people are in fact stoked for this fight, then that bodes very well for the UFC because that would mean they are even more pumped for several other fights on the above list.
Let’s look at those fights.
Obviously UFC 168, featuring the rematch between Silva and Weidman, is going to be huge. Over 42 percent of voters picked that as their most anticipated fight. Not a big surprise to most, I’d imagine.
From there it was a close race for second place with “GSP vs. Hendricks,” “Velasquez vs. JDS III” and “Henderson vs. Pettis II” all getting somewhere between 15 and 15.5 percent of the vote.
That Henderson vs. Pettis II got the same love as the other two fights might be surprising to some and may indicate that more hardcore fans voted versus casual fans as Henderson vs. Pettis II is not a fight, at least on paper, you’d think casuals would be chomping at the bit for. I could be wrong, but it stands to reason based on historic interest levels in lighter weight fights.
Following that thread, though, let’s say the hardcores who voted just aren’t into Jones vs. Gustafasson, at least not as much as the four fights ahead of it on the list. Assuming we believe that to be true, it begs the question why—which leads to a few possible reasons.
1. They are simply more interested in the dynamics surrounding the other fights.
This has to account for at least part of it and probably most of it. A Silva vs. Wiedman rematch is obvious.
A trilogy between two heavyweights is obviously enticing, although I thought that with Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos maybe not being as marketable as some of the other champs, it would not score quite as well. But it did.
GSP vs. Hendricks features GSP, who is obviously a very popular champ despite the fact that he has been branded by a large contingent of fans as “safe” and/or “boring.” And Hendricks seems to be a popular fighter with a segment of both hardcore and casual fans (I base this on talking with fans I consider casual). People think he has a good shot at knocking GSP out, or at least they are convincing themselves as such because they are tired of GSP being safe/boring.
Henderson vs. Pettis II is obviously an exciting rematch. Their first fight—contested under the WEC banner—featured with one of the most electrifying moves in MMA history and subsequently showed up on ESPN highlight reels; it even made their Top 100 moves list of 2010.
2. People just don’t care about Gus/see him as an unworthy foe that Jones will walk through.
This one is an extension of the first in that people just can’t seem to get all that excited about this match up.
Jones has been pretty downright dominant while champ, dispatching of more former champs than you can shake a stick at. Combine that with the fact that most are just not sold on Gustafasson and you have a fight that only 5 percent of people picked as their most anticipated fight.
Coming from someone who is excited for this fight, I can see both sides of the coin.
That more are not excited to simply see Jones in action, to see how he will go about breaking his challenger down, is somewhat surprising though. People were certainly on the edge of their couch or bar stool when the shark that was Tyson was fed chum in the water. While Jones is not Tyson, he did build up the belief around him of “he can’t be beat, how is he going to beat them.”
Frankly, I think “what unique way is Jones going to digest his gazelle this time” is more compelling television than “Tyson predictably knocks out another in the first or second round.” But I realize there is more to it than just that.
3. Jon Jones is not quite the draw that some in certain circles think he is.
Continuing with where we left off in the last point, Jones just may not be as big of a draw as some might think. Being an MMA editor for a mainstream sports website, I get exposed to both hardcores and casuals (varying degrees of casual). And from all that I can gather, everyone seem to care about Jones in some form or fashion.
But if you look at the history of the buyrate for the PPV events which he’s headlined, it’s not as high as some might expect. His best buyrate comes via his bad blood match with former teammate and friend Rashad Evans. That storyline sold pretty well.
Even then, though, the reported buyrate was only 700,000. Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva have pulled much bigger numbers, but of course, they have been around a lot longer than Jones has.
From there it drops to 500,000, plus/minus 50,000.
Jones vs. “Rampage” Jackson did 520,000 and his one-sided “coach vs. coach” exhibition with Chael Sonnen registered 550,000. Fights with Vitor Belfort, Lyoto Machida and Shogun Rua ranged between 450,000 and 490,00.
All in all, not bad numbers.
And it’s fair to give any fighter time to grow his brand, and their buyrate.
But with many seeing Jones as unbeatable, Gustafasson as having little to no shot and lots of competition from other great fight cards, it will be interesting to see if this is the worst PPV buyrate yet for Jones as champ (or fighting for the belt as he was when he beat Rua).
Extended PPV talk
Another thing on with PPV buyrates, worth getting tangential on, is that we can never know for sure the breakdown between hardcores and casuals who purchased.
They say that the hardcores will buy anything. Although if you talk to aging hardcores, that is not the case anymore. I have a friend who coined the term “casualization of hardcores” and said that is what the UFC has turned him into with so many fight cards.
But if a buyrate is low, say 300,000 or less, we assume that it’s mostly the hardcores buying it. And when you get 1.6 million homes purchasing UFC 100, well you know that tons of casual fans bought in and even those who are less than casual. Perhaps we can call those novelty fans or casual light.
So with Jones vs. Evans, which hit 700,000, we can say that both hardcores and casuals tuned in. It had a storyline that cut across party lines. With Jones vs. Gustafasson, it could be an interesting blend where not all of the hardcore base is there because either they just don’t care or don’t want to budget for it, but a decent amount of casuals tune in because they just want to see the enigmatic figure that is Jones.
Alas, we’ll never know that level of parsing…and hardcore vs. casual is a bit of a false construct, albeit an easy one, as it is with any black or white shading. But it’s interesting conjecture. At least for this guy.
So to bring it back home…will people care about Jones vs. Gustafsson?
We cannot definitively answer that; it would seem that at least some care, but when put up against other title fights it certainly falls well short (according to a very informal Internet poll at least).
Held up on its own, a good amount probably care, for their reasons, but to what degree the masses are going to tune in remains to be seen.
I think the most interesting thing to ponder from this informal look is: Just how big of a star is Jon Jones and how much bigger can he get over time?
Will a fight with Daniel Cormier take him to a level where he can generate upwards of a million PPV buys?
Or will he have to move up to heavyweight and challenge the likes of Velasquez and dos Santos to even up to and ultimately surpass a fighter of the magnitude of Georges St. Pierre.
The future is certainly bright for Jon Jones. Just how bright remains to be seen.
Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix winner Daniel Cormier is still pushing for a light heavyweight title shot. While he called out UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones back at the final Strikeforce event back in January, the former USA Olympic Wrest…
Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix winner Daniel Cormier is still pushing for a light heavyweight title shot. While he called out UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones back at the final Strikeforce event back in January, the former USA Olympic Wrestling Team member has remained a force at heavyweight.
Speaking with UFC Tonight for their July 24 edition, he flatly stated that he was going to implore the UFC brass to let him jump the line for an immediate title shot at 205 lbs following his UFC 166 bout with Roy Nelson.
Though Cormier has been hinting that he wishes for shot at Jones’ belt, he has seemed relatively content working over top-10 heavyweights in the meantime. After beating Josh Barnett to cement himself as the top heavyweight in Strikeforce, he took on no-name light heavyweight Dion Staring in a heavyweight bout at Strikeforce: Marquardt vs. Saffiedine.
While he would rough up Staring and call out Jon Jones, he wound up facing long-time UFC heavyweight title contender Frank Mir in his first bout in the Octagon. He is now slated to face off with new rival Roy “Big Country” Nelson. Nelson and Cormier have been beefing mightily over the last month, with Cormier saying he wants to fight Nelson “for Dana White”, with Nelson labeling it “an Uncle Tom move.
Cormier is a relatively small heavyweight in terms of his height and frame, and questions about a potential drop to 205 lbs have always lingered. The move seemed unlikely for a long while due to a near-death experience stemming from his weight cut for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. However, with his friend and teammate, Cain Velasquez, reigning as heavyweight champion, he feels like the light heavyweight division is the best place to make a run for the belt, and is confident he can safely make weight
Jones is currently scheduled to face Alexander Gustafsson in September at UFC 165. Cormier, meanwhile, will face Nelson at UFC 166 on a to-be-determined date (which will likely be in October or November).
Chael Sonnen announced a return to the middleweight division and a new five-fight contract on UFC Tonight.
“There are two guys I want to get matched up with. The first is Vitor Belfort because he’s awesome and he’s on an incredible roll….
ChaelSonnen announced a return to the middleweight division and a new five-fight contract on UFC Tonight.
“There are two guys I want to get matched up with. The first is VitorBelfort because he’s awesome and he’s on an incredible roll. Second, is Wanderlei [Silva], who I have now found out is going back to middleweight,” said Sonnen. “The landscape has completely changed. I have a new contract, and I’m returning to the weight class.”
Yet, one can’t help but think how coincidental the move is for Sonnen. I can’t imagine a simple weight cut by Silva or win streak by Belfort would constitute a complete change to the “landscape.” It couldn’t be Chris Weidman‘s defeat of Anderson Silva for the middleweight title, could it?
And then, there it is; the image of Sonnen, slithering like a title-driven snake through divisions, hissing more trash talk, eyes expectantly awaiting the flash of cameras.
First, Sonnen will compete for the second straight time in the light heavyweight division when he squares off against Mauricio Rua in the main event of UFC Fight Night in Boston on Aug. 17.
And win or lose, Sonnen will remind all he was fighting in a heavier division, where he went “toe-to-toe” with the champion Jon Jones, because no one else had the guts. Then maybe he will fight Wanderlei Silva; a match seemingly tailor-made for Sonnen. Or maybe he won’t. Maybe he won’t fight anyone, and begin to salivate with Weidman insults, New York jokes and Matt Serra impressions.
In those moments of humor, fans will begin to forget about Sonnen‘s last fight – a TKO loss to UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones at UFC 148. They will forget the two title fight losses to former middleweight champion Anderson Silva. Discussions will permeate through the mixed martial arts community about Sonnen and Weidman‘s wrestling, UFC announcer Joe Rogan will call the fight an “interesting clash of two remarkable wrestlers,” and UFC President Dana White will start to tell reporters it is the fight fans want to see.
The fight will be made as the headline of a pay-per view, forums will explode with predictions, and journalists will revel in interviewing the Oregon native, who will deem the bout the “worst East Coast/West Coast rivalry since Tupac and Notorious B.I.G.”
And yet come fight night, I will be sitting in front of my television, forgetting every word of this article, engrossed in the story line of Weidman versus Sonnen, ordering another UFC pay-per view.
When the dust settled from Anderson Silva’s knockout loss at UFC 162, the MMA world was forced to find a new king. Though the abdication of the throne was unceremonious, it’s sparked quite the debate.
Is the young and hungry Jon Jones or the meth…
When the dust settled from Anderson Silva‘s knockout loss at UFC 162, the MMA world was forced to find a new king. Though the abdication of the throne was unceremonious, it’s sparked quite the debate.
Is the young and hungry Jon Jones or the methodical and intelligent Georges St-Pierre the new pound-for-pound top fighter in the world?
While Jones has been awarded the No. 1 spot, according to ESPN Power Rankings, a solid argument can be made for St-Pierre. GSP has more UFC victories, more title defenses and easily holds the record for most significant strikes landed in the UFC.
The consensus among martial arts fans is that Jones is the No. 1 fighter in the world, and even UFC President Dana White was quoted in Damon Martin of Bleacher Report‘s article as saying simply, “Jon Jones,” when asked who should be the P4P best. Jones may have more finishes, but wins are wins.
“Bones” holds a record of 12-1 in his 13 UFC fights, with his only loss coming from a controversial disqualification loss to Matt Hamill. Of those 12 victories, nine of them were finishes, including five submissions and four knockouts.
It’s clear that Jones is a more exciting fighter at this point in his career, but the numbers for GSP speak volumes. St-Pierre has appeared in 20 UFC fights with a record of 18-2.
GSP has only six finishes in those 20 fights, but in the fight game, wins are wins. Jones, six years the junior of St-Pierre, has finished far more fights. But GSP has put in his time and, despite claims that he is a boring fighter, has gotten his hand raised almost every time he’s stepped into the Octagon.
In other sports, an athlete’s legacy is ultimately defined by the number of titles he or she has amassed in a career. And MMA is no different.
Jones is 6-0 in title fights in his UFC career and has defended the belt five times since annihilating Mauricio Shogun Rua at UFC 128 to claim the light heavyweight title. His five defenses has the young Bones tied for most in light heavyweight history, but St-Pierre’s record rivals Silva’s.
GSP has appeared in 15 UFC title fights in his career, accumulating an 11-2 record in that time. His two losses at the hands of Matt Hughes and Matt Serra have been avenged, and he is currently riding an eight-fight title defense streak, which is two less than Silva’s record.
It can certainly be argued that Jones’ 75 percent finish rate and quality of opponents is superior to that of GSP and therefore should make him the obvious choice for P4P king, but if doing damage is the issue, fans aren’t paying attention.
St-Pierre has earned the boring label in recent fights for his methodical lay-and-pray style he uses to control opponents and earn decision victories. But he does much more damage than you think.
GSP holds the UFC record for most significant strikes landed with 1153, which is 206 more than the next fighter on the list: Michael Bisping. His strike differential rate is slightly higher than Jones at 2.53 to 2.50, for those who logically argue that more fights equals more shots landed.
All in all, St-Pierre has earned the right to be called the P4P best fighter in the world. And the statistics justify it 100 percent.
Jones may have more finishes, but GSP has accumulated more UFC victories and is closing in on the record for most UFC title defenses. You may think he’s boring, but in the midst of simply lying on opponents, he does more significant damage than any other fighter in the UFC, period.
In all honesty, if I had to choose a fighter to build a company around, it would be Jones. He is unorthodox, relentless and seemingly gets better every round of every fight.
But Jones hasn’t done enough to earn the No. 1 spot over St-Pierre. Not quite yet.
Some fans will call me crazy, and people close to me have called me foolish for taking GSP over Jones, but the proof is in the pudding. More wins, more defenses, more damage done.
With Silva relinquishing the throne, GSP should be the No. 1 fighter in the world until he loses a fight.
In an ESPN article by Brian Campbell earlier this month, UFC middleweight champion Chris