Filed under: UFCWhat lessons can we take away from UFC 135? First, Jon Jones is beginning to run away with the UFC’s light-heavyweight division. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson admitted several times before and after the fight that he had worked himself into…
What lessons can we take away from UFC 135? First, Jon Jones is beginning to run away with the UFC‘s light-heavyweight division. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson admitted several times before and after the fight that he had worked himself into his best shape in years. The man is a former undisputed world champion, and he could barely lay a finger on Jones.
As Jones continues to progress, he learns how to better utilize his numerous gifts and establish his built-in advantages. Jackson loves to throw his hands, so Jones never let him, lengthening his already ridiculous reach with a steady diet of kicks. How do you punch someone you can’t reach? Answer: you can’t.
MMA math is an inexact science, but you can project how Jones will perform against Rashad Evans. While Evans has a more varied game than Jackson and boasts more speed, he’ll have to navigate the same problem with distance (Evans’ reach is 75 inches, just two inches more than Jackson’s).
At least Evans has had plenty of time to prepare. He’s known he was facing the possibility of fighting Jones since August, and he probably thought about the fight long before that. He also has some feeling for things that make Jones uncomfortable, stemming from their brief history of training together.
Still, it’s hard to shake the image of Jones completely outworking two all-time legends back to back. MMA analysis website FightMetric.com independently scores fights based on offensive striking and grappling. Against Rua, Jones won with an effectiveness score of 345-57. Against Jackson, it was 244-28. Even if you don’t know exactly know what those numbers represent, the scores make it clear he’s routing world-class fighters. Can Evans do any better? Well, we’ve never seen Jones fight a real grudge match, and that element can change a fight dynamic for better or worse. Whatever the answer, it’s going to be fun to find out.
Jon Jones
The best kind of fight booking is when one fight leads seamlessly into the next. That’s what we have here. We know Jones will next face Evans, we simply don’t know when. He’ll probably take a least a month or two off, and then the UFC can begin selling one of MMA’s most genuine rivalries. Prediction: Jones faces Evans in February.
Quinton Jackson
Regardless of the outcome, it was nice to see Jackson enter a fight in great shape and give himself the best chance of winning possible. Hopefully the trend continues. There are still several interesting matchups for him, but Jackson has his eye on one or two fights in particular. Prediction: Jackson faces Forrest Griffin in the UFC’s Japan event, expected for February 2012.
Matt Hughes
The two-time welterweight champion turns 38 years old in just a few weeks, and coming off two straight knockout losses, his time is running short. Hughes said he would ask the UFC to put him “on the shelf” while he considers his future, but we already know that his wife doesn’t want him to fight any longer, and Saturday night’s result will only reinforce her opinion. As anyone who’s married knows, you might able to put your wife off for a while, but only for so long. This is probably the end for Mr. Hughes. Happy trails to the legend. Prediction: Hughes calls it quits and stays involved with the UFC in an ambassador type role.
Josh Koscheck
It was a fantastic night for Koscheck after taking the fight on short notice. Now, he faces a bit of an issue. He’s already faced division champion Georges St-Pierre twice, so as long as GSP holds the belt, Koscheck has no chance to get another title match. So his options are either to stay at 170 and continue winning while hoping that someone upsets St-Pierre, or moving up to 185, where he’ll be at a serious size disadvantage. Prediction: Koscheck loves making money, and the bigger, better matchups for him are still at 170. If Diego Sanchez heals in a timely fashion, he’s the pick for a rematch, but if not, how about we send him to the UK to fight Dan Hardy? That sounds fun.
Mark Hunt
With all the hoopla following the Jones-Rampage-Rashad triangle and Matt Hughes’ possible retirement, Mark Hunt’s story got sort of lost. But once upon a time, the UFC tried to pay Hunt to stay home and cut ties. It would have been the easiest payday of his career, but he chose to make his money the old fashioned way. Now a surprising 2-1 in the UFC after beating heavily favored Ben Rothwell, Hunt adds future paydays, all well earned. Prediction: In a battle of kickboxing specialists, Hunt faces Pat Barry in January.
Ben Rothwell
After more than a year on the sidelines, Rothwell has to be terribly disappointed at losing his return bout, but at least he fought through incredible exhaustion and refused to be finished. He’ll certainly get another crack in the octagon, but he needs to make this one count. Prediction: He faces the loser of next month’s Joey Beltran-Stipe Miocic fight early next year.
Travis Browne
Browne didn’t put on the showcase some expected against the durable Brit Rob Broughton, but in the fight game, you have to shrug off an ugly win every now and again. It should still be onward and upward for Browne, who has yet to face defeat in the cage. This time, let’s forget booking the heavyweights in elevation and put him on flat land. Prediction: Browne faces Brendan Schaub.
Nate Diaz
Diaz looks alternately spectacular (striking and jiu-jitsu) and ordinary (wrestling) depending on the opponent in front of him. Until he proves he can stop a takedown though, it’s going to be difficult to project how far he can go. The talent is there, but that one hole needs to be shut, and in the lightweight division, wrestlers are around every corner. Prediction: Diaz faces Jim Miller, a fight that would be off the charts on the intensity scale.
Takanori Gomi
Since coming over to the UFC, Gomi’s had only one flash of his old brilliance when he knocked out Tyson Griffin in April 2010. After losing three of four, the UFC has to be wondering what exactly they have on their hands. Gomi may be a historical great, but right now he’s not bringing the goods. I still think he’ll get one more chance at a winnable fight when the UFC brings the show to Japan. Prediction: Gomi faces Thiago Tavares.
Tim Boetsch
In his second fight since moving down to middleweight, The “Barbarian” again looked strong, giving Nick Ring his first loss. The middleweight division is among the weakest in the UFC, so Boetsch has a chance to make himself a player in short order. Next up should be another fighter riding a win streak. Prediction: Boetsch faces Rousimar Palhares.
You probably have more of a life than I do, which means you probably haven’t watched as much mixed martial arts on TV as I have in the last couple days. But if you wanted to, you could have.
On Friday night I had two TVs going in one room, one on HDNet and one on Showtime, as I watched both the Titan Fighting Championships and Strikeforce cards. After a few hours of sleep I got up very early Saturday morning and watched the Dream card on HDNet. On Saturday evening I kept an eye on Bellator on MTV2 while watching the UFC fights on Facebook, on Spike and on pay-per-view.
I watched about three dozen live MMA fights in a span of just over 24 hours from Friday night through Saturday night. As an MMA fan, I was in heaven.
The story everyone is talking about coming out of UFC 135 is Jon Jones‘ impressive title defense over Rampage Jackson, but what this weekend really solidified to me was just how far this sport has come, and how much good MMA there is for the fans to watch. It wasn’t that long ago, before the UFC got on basic cable with The Ultimate Fighter, that getting a chance to watch live MMA was a special occasion for fans. In 2004 — the last year before The Ultimate Fighter — the UFC put on only five fight cards, for the entire year, and all of them were on pay-per-view. Other MMA promotions existed, but few fans ever got to see them live. Now there’s so much MMA on TV that even the hardest of hard-core fans miss some fights. It’s impossible to see it all.
And it’s only getting better. With a UFC heavyweight title fight coming to Fox in November, MMA will really be everywhere. This sport has accomplished so much in so little time that those of us who love it don’t often stop to consider how lucky we are to have so many MMA options available to us. Probably because we’re too busy watching fights.
UFC 135 notes — The UFC 135 main event was a good demonstration of how much this sport has changed: Rampage is one of the great fighters of the last decade, but he’s a fundamentally one-dimensional fighter. Jones is on a completely different level, with far more ways to win a fight. The amazing thing about the way this sport continues to evolve is that some day someone will come along whose fighting style makes Jones look old-fashioned.
— James Te-Huna had never fought outside Australia before Saturday night, as the UFC mostly had him on the roster as a local guy to throw on the undercard in their trips Down Under. But Te-Huna got his first chance to fight in the Octagon on U.S. soil at UFC 135, and he delivered in a big way with a terrific first-round knockout of Ricardo Romero. When Romero went for a low takedown attempt, Te-Huna made him pay for it with a huge low punch that knocked him cold. The whole fight lasted just 47 seconds.
— We haven’t seen a lot of top-notch talent come out of The Ultimate Fighter in the last couple years, but Tony Ferguson, who won Season 13 of The Ultimate Fighter, might just be a future star. Ferguson knocked out everyone he faced on The Ultimate Fighter, and he showed off the same lethal striking against Aaron Riley on Saturday night. Ferguson is a force to be reckoned with.
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UFC 135 quotes — “I just want to say thanks to Matt Hughes for taking this fight late in his career. He’s a legend and I’m really proud that I had the opportunity to fight a legend like Matt Hughes.”–Josh Koscheck, after beating Matt Hughes in what may have been the final fight of Hughes’ career. Although Koscheck plays up the role of villain in the UFC, Koscheck’s post-fight comments toward Hughes were pure class.
— “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a guy this tired in the Octagon before.”–UFC announcer Joe Rogan on Ben Rothwell in the third round of his loss to Mark Hunt. The Denver altitude didn’t help, of course, but Rothwell really looked like he needs to work on his conditioning.
Good call — Greg Jackson, in the corner of Aaron Riley, did exactly the right thing to protect his fighter after the first round, when Tony Ferguson broke Riley’s jaw with an upper cut. Riley went to his corner and said he had a broken jaw, and Jackson immediately told the referee, “It’s over.” That’s what the corner man is supposed to do.
Bad call — Two of the three judges gave Junior Assuncao a 10-8 third round in his victory over Eddie Yagin, as they should have, but I want to know what the judge who only scored it a 10-9 was thinking. Assuncao spent the better part of the round on top of Yagin, pounding away, and provided a textbook example of what should earn a fighter a 10-8 round. Some judges are too hesitant to award 10-8 rounds, and the one who only scored the third 10-9 for Assuncao is one of them.
Stock up — Tim Boetsch is looking great at middleweight. If you look at the fights Boetsch has lost in his career, they were all against big, strong light heavyweights who could overpower him: Boetsch’s four career losses are to Vladimir Matyushenko, Matt Hamill, Jason Brilz and Phil Davis. Now that Boetsch is at middleweight, he’s overpowering people and earning his “Barbarian” nickname. Boetsch easily beat Nick Ring and is now 2-0 as a middleweight. “I’m loving middleweight so far,” Boetsch said afterward.
Stock down — I didn’t like the antics between Assuncao and Yagin at the weigh-ins, when the two of them acted like they wanted to brawl right then and there. And I really didn’t like how tentative both of them looked once they actually got into the Octagon: If you’re going to act like you’re eager for a knock-down, drag-out battle, don’t step into the cage and act like it’s a staring contest. Assuncao won easily, but he did far too much showboating: He raised his hands up, shuffled his feet, danced around and even waved his finger at the crowd while Yagin was attempting a guillotine choke. Assuncao was respectful afterward and said he was just trying to get in his opponent’s head, but the crowd booed Assuncao’s antics, and as far as I’m concerned, the stock of both Assuncao and Yagin is down after that fight.
Fight I want to see next It looks like we’re finally getting close to seeing Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans, the grudge match between the two training partners that’s been talked about for months. Seeing Jones and Evans in the Octagon together after Jones won the UFC 135 main event was a great reminder that for as dominant as Jones has looked, he’s not without legitimate challengers.
You probably have more of a life than I do, which means you probably haven’t watched as much mixed martial arts on TV as I have in the last couple days. But if you wanted to, you could have.
On Friday night I had two TVs going in one room, one on HDNet and one on Showtime, as I watched both the Titan Fighting Championships and Strikeforce cards. After a few hours of sleep I got up very early Saturday morning and watched the Dream card on HDNet. On Saturday evening I kept an eye on Bellator on MTV2 while watching the UFC fights on Facebook, on Spike and on pay-per-view.
I watched about three dozen live MMA fights in a span of just over 24 hours from Friday night through Saturday night. As an MMA fan, I was in heaven.
The story everyone is talking about coming out of UFC 135 is Jon Jones‘ impressive title defense over Rampage Jackson, but what this weekend really solidified to me was just how far this sport has come, and how much good MMA there is for the fans to watch. It wasn’t that long ago, before the UFC got on basic cable with The Ultimate Fighter, that getting a chance to watch live MMA was a special occasion for fans. In 2004 — the last year before The Ultimate Fighter — the UFC put on only five fight cards, for the entire year, and all of them were on pay-per-view. Other MMA promotions existed, but few fans ever got to see them live. Now there’s so much MMA on TV that even the hardest of hard-core fans miss some fights. It’s impossible to see it all.
And it’s only getting better. With a UFC heavyweight title fight coming to Fox in November, MMA will really be everywhere. This sport has accomplished so much in so little time that those of us who love it don’t often stop to consider how lucky we are to have so many MMA options available to us. Probably because we’re too busy watching fights.
UFC 135 notes — The UFC 135 main event was a good demonstration of how much this sport has changed: Rampage is one of the great fighters of the last decade, but he’s a fundamentally one-dimensional fighter. Jones is on a completely different level, with far more ways to win a fight. The amazing thing about the way this sport continues to evolve is that some day someone will come along whose fighting style makes Jones look old-fashioned.
— James Te-Huna had never fought outside Australia before Saturday night, as the UFC mostly had him on the roster as a local guy to throw on the undercard in their trips Down Under. But Te-Huna got his first chance to fight in the Octagon on U.S. soil at UFC 135, and he delivered in a big way with a terrific first-round knockout of Ricardo Romero. When Romero went for a low takedown attempt, Te-Huna made him pay for it with a huge low punch that knocked him cold. The whole fight lasted just 47 seconds.
— We haven’t seen a lot of top-notch talent come out of The Ultimate Fighter in the last couple years, but Tony Ferguson, who won Season 13 of The Ultimate Fighter, might just be a future star. Ferguson knocked out everyone he faced on The Ultimate Fighter, and he showed off the same lethal striking against Aaron Riley on Saturday night. Ferguson is a force to be reckoned with.
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UFC 135 quotes — “I just want to say thanks to Matt Hughes for taking this fight late in his career. He’s a legend and I’m really proud that I had the opportunity to fight a legend like Matt Hughes.”–Josh Koscheck, after beating Matt Hughes in what may have been the final fight of Hughes’ career. Although Koscheck plays up the role of villain in the UFC, Koscheck’s post-fight comments toward Hughes were pure class.
— “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a guy this tired in the Octagon before.”–UFC announcer Joe Rogan on Ben Rothwell in the third round of his loss to Mark Hunt. The Denver altitude didn’t help, of course, but Rothwell really looked like he needs to work on his conditioning.
Good call — Greg Jackson, in the corner of Aaron Riley, did exactly the right thing to protect his fighter after the first round, when Tony Ferguson broke Riley’s jaw with an upper cut. Riley went to his corner and said he had a broken jaw, and Jackson immediately told the referee, “It’s over.” That’s what the corner man is supposed to do.
Bad call — Two of the three judges gave Junior Assuncao a 10-8 third round in his victory over Eddie Yagin, as they should have, but I want to know what the judge who only scored it a 10-9 was thinking. Assuncao spent the better part of the round on top of Yagin, pounding away, and provided a textbook example of what should earn a fighter a 10-8 round. Some judges are too hesitant to award 10-8 rounds, and the one who only scored the third 10-9 for Assuncao is one of them.
Stock up — Tim Boetsch is looking great at middleweight. If you look at the fights Boetsch has lost in his career, they were all against big, strong light heavyweights who could overpower him: Boetsch’s four career losses are to Vladimir Matyushenko, Matt Hamill, Jason Brilz and Phil Davis. Now that Boetsch is at middleweight, he’s overpowering people and earning his “Barbarian” nickname. Boetsch easily beat Nick Ring and is now 2-0 as a middleweight. “I’m loving middleweight so far,” Boetsch said afterward.
Stock down — I didn’t like the antics between Assuncao and Yagin at the weigh-ins, when the two of them acted like they wanted to brawl right then and there. And I really didn’t like how tentative both of them looked once they actually got into the Octagon: If you’re going to act like you’re eager for a knock-down, drag-out battle, don’t step into the cage and act like it’s a staring contest. Assuncao won easily, but he did far too much showboating: He raised his hands up, shuffled his feet, danced around and even waved his finger at the crowd while Yagin was attempting a guillotine choke. Assuncao was respectful afterward and said he was just trying to get in his opponent’s head, but the crowd booed Assuncao’s antics, and as far as I’m concerned, the stock of both Assuncao and Yagin is down after that fight.
Fight I want to see next It looks like we’re finally getting close to seeing Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans, the grudge match between the two training partners that’s been talked about for months. Seeing Jones and Evans in the Octagon together after Jones won the UFC 135 main event was a great reminder that for as dominant as Jones has looked, he’s not without legitimate challengers.
Filed under: UFC, NewsVANCOUVER, British Columbia — UFC president Dana White on Thursday said he expects light heavyweight champion Jon Jones to make his first title defense against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 135 in Denver, Colo. on September 24…
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — UFC president Dana White on Thursday said he expects light heavyweight champion Jon Jones to make his first title defense against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 135 in Denver, Colo. on September 24.
“That is the date [Jones] will fight, assuming he’s healed,” White said.
White stipulated that Jones still needs to get his hand cleared by a doctor before he can be officially slotted in, but that could happen as early as Friday, barring any unforeseen medical problems.
Just last week Jones told MMA Junkie that Jackson would be his first challenger, but said he couldn’t discuss the date. White ended that speculation following the UFC 131 press conference, telling reporters that the organization is targeting Jones’ return for September 24.
Previously, Jones was expected to face former training partner Rashad Evans in his first title defense. But after pulling out of the bout amid claims that he needed surgery on an injured ligament in his hand, Evans was slotted for a fight with Phil Davis at UFC 133.
Recently, Jones’ management announced on Twitter that the champion doesn’t need surgery after all, clearing the way for a return to action in the fall. As long as doctors don’t see any problem with the hand now, Jones should be cleared to take on Jackson in Denver.
At long last, Matt Hamill finally is getting what he has been asking for for a while – and the UFC won’t start him slowly.
Hamill (10-2, 9-2 UFC) has been asking for a Top 10 opponent, and UFC president Dana White said after his last win that he’d get one. After a series of changes, Hamill gets arguably the most important fight of his career at UFC 130 against former light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.
And thanks to five straight wins, Hamill, the only deaf fighter in the UFC, is riding high on confidence going into the May 28 fight.
“I know I’m going to break his will – I know I’m going to beat Rampage,” Hamill told host Ariel Helwani on a recent edition of “The MMA Hour.” “I’ve been training real hard and my conditioning and my skills and technique, striking and kicking are a lot better.”
Ortiz, a former UFC light heavyweight champ, was scheduled to face Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in the main event of the UFC’s Fight Night 24 card on Spike TV in Seattle this Saturday. But he was forced out of the bout several weeks ago when he suffered a concussion and cut while training that required more than 20 stitches to his head. Phil Davis stepped up and will face Nogueira on Saturday.
NEWARK, N.J. – Brendan Schaub, Erik Koch, Edson Barboza and Anthony Njokuani are each $70,000 richer after their performances at UFC 128 on Saturday night.
Those four top performers on the UFC’s pay-per-view at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., …
Those four top performers on the UFC’s pay-per-view at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., were given post-fight bonuses for their work. UFC president Dana White announced the bonus winners and amount at the post-fight press conference.
The card was without a submission, so White elected to give two knockout bonuses instead – to Schaub and Koch. Barboza and Njokuani won bonuses for Fight of the Night.
What lessons can we take away from UFC 135? First, Jon Jones is beginning to run away with the UFC‘s light-heavyweight division. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson admitted several times before and after the fight that he had worked himself into his best shape in years. The man is a former undisputed world champion, and he could barely lay a finger on Jones.
You probably have more of a life than I do, which means you probably haven’t watched as much mixed martial arts on TV as I have in the last couple days. But if you wanted to, you could have.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — 
At long last, 