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At UFC 152 in Toronto, Demetrious Johnson defeated Joseph Benavidez by split decision to become the UFC’s first flyweight champion.It was a hard-fought contest, and both men fought well. But in the end, Johnson was simply the better fighter in skill se…
At UFC 152 in Toronto, Demetrious Johnson defeated Joseph Benavidez by split decision to become the UFC’s first flyweight champion.
It was a hard-fought contest, and both men fought well. But in the end, Johnson was simply the better fighter in skill set and game plan as well as pure athletic talent.
Here are five UFC 125-pounders who would make good challengers to the UFC’s newest champ.
As everyone who knows the sport of mixed martial arts predicted, Jon Jones made easy work of Vitor Belfort at UFC 152.The light heavyweight champion has become a pariah of sorts in the sport after the fiasco involving UFC 151, but no one can deny he is…
As everyone who knows the sport of mixed martial arts predicted, Jon Jones made easy work of Vitor Belfort at UFC 152.
The light heavyweight champion has become a pariah of sorts in the sport after the fiasco involving UFC 151, but no one can deny he is still the most talented fighter in mixed martial arts right now.
And because Jones is so good and so dominant, he has made it difficult to keep coming up with challengers for his title. Frankly, when you get right down to it, the list of potential opponents doesn’t inspire much confidence.
But we know that Jones is going to fight again, and there are a few names out there who at least deserve the shot to compete for the light heavyweight title.
Here are the fighters we would like to see at least get considered for the next light heavyweight title shot against Jones.
Dan Henderson
Henderson is the easiest name to put on the list. He is currently the No. 2 light heavyweight in the world, according to Sherdog. He has won four consecutive fights, the last two under the UFC banner. (His July 2011 Strikeforce fight with Fedor Emelianenko was after UFC purchased the rival promotion.)
And, oh by the way, Henderson was supposed to challenge Jones at UFC 151 before suffering a knee injury that forced him to withdraw.
Even though Henderson is a popular fighter with one of the strongest chins in the history of the sport, he is still a 42-year-old who would be going against the best athlete in the sport, who is also 17 years younger.
I don’t see Henderson having much of a chance, unless he can breach Jones’ huge wall he can create due to his ridiculous reach and land hard punches. Even if Henderson doesn’t win, he has earned the right to prove himself.
Alexander Gustafsson
UFC is giving Gustafsson a chance to prove himself against the best the 205-pound division has to offer with a showdown against former champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC on FOX in December.
A victory in that fight should propel Gustafsson into title contention. He has a career record of 14-1, including a 6-1 mark in UFC. He can’t quite match Jones’ natural athleticism or physical attributes, but he is long and lanky with a good stand-up game and power.
Given the way that Jones has manhandled all the other top contenders in the division, such as Rua, Rashad Evans, Lyoto Machida, it is time for some new blood to step up and provide a challenge for the champion.
Still, Gustafsson does have to prove himself against Rua. His best win, at least against a name opponent, was against Matt Hamill, who has had a solid career but isn’t exactly in the top tier of light heavyweights.
Chael Sonnen
I went back and forth with who I wanted to put in the final spot on the list. The choices came down to Sonnen and Lyoto Machida.
UFC president Dana White made it abundantly clear that Machida would get a title shot after the Jones-Henderson fight.
However, after Machida rejected a title shot against Jones after Henderson withdrew, White made it sound like he was going to put the Dragon through the wringer before putting him in the spotlight.
On the other hand, Sonnen was more than happy to offer his services for the fight on short notice. A move up in weight for Sonnen will be a difficult adjustment, and throwing him to the wolves right away might not be the smartest move, but think of the marketing possibilities.
Trying to find anyone who will give Jones a challenge is hard on its own, so why not go with the fighter you know is going to put himself out there in order to sell the show?
Sonnen is a marketer extraordinaire. He wants to be on television, telling the world why he is going to win, why his opponent is garbage, and what he wants to do in the fight.
Plus, Sonnen is one of the best pure wrestlers in the sport. He held Anderson Silva on the ground for an entire round in their second fight. Of course, Sonnen got knocked out in the second round, but still, a round win over Silva carries a lot of weight.
Jones has handled every challenge put in front of him with ease. Sonnen wouldn’t necessarily be the biggest test of Jones’ career, but he would certainly make the fight far more entertaining than anyone else.
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If nothing else, fans were looking forward to UFC 152 for the simple fact that they’d be able to remove the awful taste that the cancellation of UFC 151 left in their mouths. Dana White and the rest of the UFC brass couldn’t have been happier to have m…
If nothing else, fans were looking forward to UFC 152 for the simple fact that they’d be able to remove the awful taste that the cancellation of UFC 151 left in their mouths. Dana White and the rest of the UFC brass couldn’t have been happier to have moved on as well.
UFC 152 got off to a rocky start in the prelims with the controversial stoppage of Kyle Noke over Charlie Brenneman. This was followed up by two additional first-round stoppages.
Three decisions kicked off the fights shown on FX, but things didn’t start to get really interesting until Vinny Magalhaes made his triumphant return to the UFC with a second-round submission win over Igor Pokrajac.
Cub Swanson greeted the pay-per-view audience with an odd-looking knockout of Charles Oliveira. Then the action really plummeted when Matt Hamill and Roger Hollett took to the cage.
Hamill vs. Hollett was one of the worst fights I’ve ever seen. From a fan’s standpoint, a writer’s standpoint, a fan of Hamill’s standpoint. Whatever standpoint it was from, the fight flat-out stunk.
In fact, the thought of UFC 151 didn’t cross my mind all night until I saw these two lugs waltz around for 15 minutes.
Halfway through the fight, I had the notion to check out the UFC 151 card to remind myself of the fights we could have seen if Henderson didn’t pull out with a knee injury. The fact is, we weren’t missing much…at least on paper.
Instead of Hamill vs. Hollett, we would have been watching Dennis Hallman vs. Thiago Tavares. Granted, its hard to say how the fight could have gone between Hallman and Tavares, but I can guarantee it would have gone better than Hamill vs. Hollett.
Heck, watching two paper bags blow in the wind in a race to the end of the street would have been more entertaining.
After that fight painfully ended, we were left with good (not great) fights of Bisping/Stann, Johnson/Benavidez and Jones/Belfort. When it was all said and done, UFC 152 was an entertaining night as a whole.
I feel like the event did its job and put the cancellation of UFC 151 in the background and made it a distant memory for many.
Jones said some good things immediately following his fight, and it was apparent that the chorus of boos he was showered with upon entering the arena was turned into cheers as he exited.
The UFC 151 disaster was only going to be forgotten if Jones showed maturity and class following his fight with Belfort.
He showed both, and now the MMA community can press forward and let go of some resentment they may have had toward Jones, Dana, and whoever else was responsible for the cancellation of UFC 151.
Joe Chacon is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report and a staff writer for Operation Sports. You can follow him on Twitter @JoeChacon.
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I’d have to imagine that in homes and bars across the world, people were yelling something to the effect of, “Oh! He’s got him! He’s got him!” when Vitor Belfort latched onto a serious armbar early in the first round against Jon Jones on Saturday night…
I’d have to imagine that in homes and bars across the world, people were yelling something to the effect of, “Oh! He’s got him! He’s got him!” when Vitor Belfort latched onto a serious armbar early in the first round against Jon Jones on Saturday night.
“The Phenom” didn’t look phenomenal against the light heavyweight champion, but as Lee Corso would say, it was closer than the experts thought. Especially early on.
Many writers and fans expected Jones to dismantle Belfort fairly easily, and I guess in some respects he did. Aside from the first couple of minutes, the fight was never in doubt, and he eventually wore down Belfort on the way to his fourth-round submission victory.
That’s precisely why I believe Belfort still has a few years left in him. He isn’t somebody who you’d expect to come into the Octagon and get dropped by a single punch to the chin.
He hasn’t been too successful since his return to the UFC in 2009 (3-2), but those two losses have come against Anderson Silva and now Jones.
I think we can all sense when I guy should call it a career. We saw Chuck Liddell’s chin fail him during his demise and knew his time was up. Tito Ortiz could never seem to put together consecutive wins during the final five years of his career and fans could see the sport passing him by.
The same can be said for Rampage Jackson and Forrest Griffin. Generally speaking, I think we have a pretty good gauge when it comes to feeling if a fighter should retire or not.
Belfort did enough against the champion to give confidence to himself and his fans that he can compete at a high level. We may never see UFC gold wrapped around Belfort‘s waist again, but he’s still a fighter who can compete with some of the best fighters the UFC has to offer.
At the age of 35, Belfort still has the heart, skill-set and chin to be competitive in his fights. If he comes out and loses again in his next fight, then we may start to hear more musings of him riding off into the sunset and calling it a career.
Joe Chacon is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report and a staff writer for Operation Sports. You can follow him on Twitter @JoeChacon.
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Jon Jones defeated Vitor Belfort to defend the light heavyweight title at UFC 152 in Toronto. However, the champion nearly lost the fight in the first round, and the lessons learned from the close call will benefit him going forward. Jones landed a vic…
Jon Jones defeated Vitor Belfort to defend the light heavyweight title at UFC 152 in Toronto. However, the champion nearly lost the fight in the first round, and the lessons learned from the close call will benefit him going forward.
Jones landed a vicious kick to Beflort’s ribs in the third round, and this eventually led to a win by submission for the champion at the beginning of the fourth round.
However, Belfort nearly pulled off what would have been the most shocking victory in UFC history when he caught Jones in an armbar in the first round. Jones’ arm bent in a gruesomely unnatural way before he was finally able to escape from Belfort’s grasp.
ESPN’s Brett Okamoto quotes Jones discussing the effects of that hold.
I’ve never had my arm popped like that before. I felt it, but I worked too hard to give up. I honestly was waiting for it to break.
It just felt numb. My brain is trained to throw it, so I threw it, but it didn’t feel powerful at all.
This result was ideal for Jones because he earned another impressive victory, but was also humbled by nearly losing to Belfort.
Anderson Silva grew far too cocky before Chael Sonnen dominated for the majority of their 2010 bout. Silva was able to get Sonnen in a triangle armbar and escape with a victory. Jones certainly risked following this trend as he knocked off one former champion after the other.
With this victory, Jones will have an extremely sore arm to remind him how quick the fall from the top can come in this sport. He will certainly reevaluate his strategy and mindset before he steps in the Octagon again.
Jones was immediately aware of the need to improve after the fight, saying, “I’ve got a lot of work to do against southpaws for sure,” via ESPN.co.uk.
There is so much more to learn from defeats than victories, but Jones is in the position of being painfully reminded that he must get better as a fighter and he did not have to suffer a loss.
This result will allow Jones to grow as a fighter while also improving on his already impressive résumé.
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UFC 152 is in the books. It was a card headlined by a light heavyweight title fight between Jon Jones and Vitor Belfort. It was Jones’ fourth title defense and one of the most technically dominant performances of his young career. The fight almost…
UFC 152 is in the books. It was a card headlined by a light heavyweight title fight between Jon Jones and Vitor Belfort. It was Jones’ fourth title defense and one of the most technically dominant performances of his young career.
The fight almost came to a surprising end in the first round when Vitor Belfort locked up an armbar that had the champ’s arm hyperextended. Jones was able to tough through the awful position and dominate the challenger on the ground with vicious elbows.
From there, the fight was very much like a skilled surgeon cutting up and rearranging a patient’s face. Actually that’s exactly what it was like. Jones mashed up Belfort’s face for three more rounds before getting the finish.
The end of the fight came when Belfort pulled guard and Jones lit him up with elbows from the top. These were enough to soften up the champion and open up for an Americana finish.
From the Bleacher Report play by play:
Vitor Belfort vs. Jon Jones
Round 4: Vitor lands a head kick and then lands several uppercuts from a clinch. Vitor then pulls guard and Jones is landing elbows from the top. Jones locks in an americana and forces the tap.
Relive the fight in this short video highlight courtesy of ESPN.
And be sure to keep checking back with Bleacher Report for more UFC 152 content.
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