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Jon Jones is still the UFC light heavyweight champ after UFC 152.Although Vitor Belfort took the fight on short notice and had no shot to win in many peoples’ eyes, he nearly defeated the champ when he sunk in a dangerous armbar. Despite suffering…
Jon Jones is still the UFC light heavyweight champ after UFC 152.
Although Vitor Belfort took the fight on short notice and had no shot to win in many peoples’ eyes, he nearly defeated the champ when he sunk in a dangerous armbar.
Despite suffering an arm injury, Jones was able to continue and ultimately prevail.
Here is a look at some of the key takeaways from Saturday’s main event.
Vitor Belfort wasn’t Jon Jones’ toughest opponent to date, but he did provide Jon Jones’ toughest moment.In the first round of the UFC 152 main event, Belfort dangled from Jones’ arm like a parasite. The armbar Belfort was working was edging Jones…
Vitor Belfort wasn’t Jon Jones‘ toughest opponent to date, but he did provide Jon Jones’ toughest moment.
In the first round of the UFC 152 main event, Belfort dangled from Jones’ arm like a parasite. The armbar Belfort was working was edging Jones’ elbow ever farther in the wrong direction. It seemed like a simple matter of what would break first: the arm or Jones himself.
A second ticked away. Then another.
“When I heard [the elbow] pop, I lost the pressure and it got away,” Belfort said at the post-fight news conference.
Soon after Belfort relinquished the hold, it seemed his strength was leaching away. Jones used one of his lethal elbows to open and then further open the skin over Belfort’s right eye. From that point until he succumbed to an americana in the fourth, Belfort played solid defense but never truly bothered Jones again.
Belfort, as most fans know, was a very heavy underdog here. A Belfort win would have been one of the biggest upsets in history. Nevertheless, the win cemented Jones, in my mind, as the very best light heavyweight that MMA has ever seen.
The armbar revealed a different side of Jones, a side the fighting public (and maybe Jones?) had never seen before. With his elbow bending backward and escape proving futile, there was no game plan left. There was no reach advantage in that moment. No film to study. No flying knees to unleash. No cautious words to chant about planning for long-term success. Just a dude gritting his teeth and praying that his radius and his cojones stayed intact just a little longer.
“He got that armbar in every way, shape and form,” Jones told broadcaster Joe Rogan after the fight. “I’ve never had my arm pop like that before, but I’ve worked too hard to give up…I was honestly waiting for it to break. I wasn’t going to tap. I’ve never felt that way before.”
Forget that first round with Lyoto Machida, maybe the only round Jones has ever legitimately lost. This was Jon Jones’ true moment of adversity, bar none, and Jones overcame it with flying colors. That was the last box Jones needed to check. I don’t think adversity outside the cage has much to do with adversity in it, but everyone knows about the precipitous approval-ratings drop Jones went through in the wake of the cancellation of UFC 151. Jones had to have known that everybody in the known Twitterverse was howling for him to tap or snap. (Especially after the ridiculous comment, made in an interview with Rogan broadcast earlier in the evening, that “my DUI set me free.” Eh, come again?) To hold on, in the face of all that simultaneous physical and psychic pressure, means something.
From a pure fighting perspective, it’s been getting harder to deny Jones’ advantage over the other claimants to the all-time light heavyweight throne. Jones has a prototype physique. He can strike. He can wrestle. He can submit. He can clinch. He can take a punch. He is creative. He is smart. He is unpredictable. The only thing I’m not sure he’s proved is whether he can fight off of his back. Anyone want to test his skill in that phase or, you know, try to put him there? Who could honestly see Chuck Liddell stuffing Jones’ takedowns? You think Randy Couture or Wanderlei Silva could have controlled him in the clinch? Tito Ortiz or Dan Henderson wouldn’t (and can’t) last with him. He’s already beaten all-timers like Machida, Rashad Evans, Mauricio Rua and Quinton Jackson.
But we knew all that before. Now, though, we know that he’s tough—really, truly tough. That was the final unknown. I’m not saying he’s unbeatable; that condition doesn’t exist. But there is nothing left for Jones to prove—not to the present or the past, the lovers or the haters. After UFC 152, he must be the greatest.
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Every time we see Jon Jones fight he makes us wonder if he will ever lose at light heavyweight. Some may say his close call in the first round of UFC 152’s main event is proof he can be beaten.Another way to look at Jones’ escape from Vitor Belfort’s a…
Every time we see Jon Jones fight he makes us wonder if he will ever lose at light heavyweight. Some may say his close call in the first round of UFC 152‘s main event is proof he can be beaten.
Another way to look at Jones’ escape from Vitor Belfort‘s armbar is as confirmation of the champion’s grit and toughness. He had faced very little adversity up to this point, and I’d say he passed the test with flying colors.
That armbar would have caused lesser men to tap out, but Jones fought through the pain of a possibly dislocated elbow to avoid a submission defeat. He proceeded to dominate his opponent for the rest of the fight, until he himself would win by submission in the fourth round.
In this fight, Jones leaned on a sidekick to the thigh and knee to disrupt his opponent. He then used his length and technique to execute a proficient display of ground-and-pound. Part of the appeal of watching Jones is seeing what new tactic he will unveil.
This was no amateur he pounded with elbows on the ground and ultimately submitted with an americana. This was Belfort—the man known as “The Phenom,” a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, a premier striker and a UFC legend.
Yet beyond the close call with the armbar in the first round, Jones made him look as defenseless as every other opponent he’s faced. It is amazing how a champion with a target on his back, like Jones, can consistently defeat top competition. He has now defeated five straight ex-champions.
This was originally supposed to be Dan Henderson facing Jones, but an injury forced him to back out. The outcome would have been the same. There is no light heavyweight that the MMA world has seen who can defeat Jones.
It is that simple.
He is too big, too skilled and apparently too tough for anyone at the weight class to handle. If Jones is going to lose, it’ll have to be at heavyweight or years from now when he’s lost something.
Some may call my assessment biased, but it is far from that. It is simply a recognition of greatness and the rarest combination of size, talent and mettle the sport has ever seen.
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In case you were wondering, Jon Jones is only getting better. Through all of his accomplishments, the one thing we had never seen from Jones prior to his UFC 152 title defense against Vitor Belfort was the champion battle through adversity. That change…
In case you were wondering, Jon Jones is only getting better.
Through all of his accomplishments, the one thing we had never seen from Jones prior to his UFC 152 title defense against Vitor Belfort was the champion battle through adversity.
That changed Saturday night.
Jones was able to overcome an extremely tight first round armbar attempt from “The Phenom” that seemingly injured his right arm, and “Bones” and fought through an injury that may have caused other fighters to at least consider giving in.
Instead, the champion came out and put on yet another textbook victory, getting on top of Belfort whenever possible and grounding and pounding his opponent with brutal elbows.
Eventually, Jones earned himself a submission victory, and with the win, finds his already shockingly high reputation amongst fight fans growing a bit more.
The 125-pound flyweight division is as far down as the UFC should go. The current plans to bring in a 115-pound weight-class need to be aborted ASAP.This isn’t idle naysaying. This is the truth. Flyweights can’t draw a crowd. Nor can they garner t…
The 125-pound flyweight division is as far down as the UFC should go. The current plans to bring in a 115-pound weight-class need to be aborted ASAP.
This isn’t idle naysaying. This is the truth.
Flyweights can’t draw a crowd. Nor can they garner the interest of an existing crowd drawn in by other bigger fighters. Their fast but ultimately ineffective style is off-putting to the legions of casual fans, as indicated by the chorus of boos heard throughout the 25-minute fight between Demetrious Johnson and Joseph Benavidez.
Bleacher Report’s own Jonathan Snowden explored this phenomenon in detail.
“Hardcore” fans and media members might love the flyweights, but the casual fan doesn’t. Ultimately, the money lies with the casual fans, not the hardcore ones—who use any perceived grievance as a justification for illegally streaming pay-per-views.
Furthermore, the flyweight division is the most shallow weight-class in the UFC. How the UFC is going to make regular flyweight fights and keep the division interesting remains to be seen.
Despite these issues, UFC President Dana White seemed unconcerned at the UFC 152 pre-fight presser, insulting all those who questioned the validity of a flyweight division and the entertainment value of flyweight fights.
If the first title fight in a new division is seen as a cause for fans booing and the promoter being overly defensive, why then should that same promoter create a new weight-class that’s 10 pounds lighter and will therefore have the same problems but even worse?
There will be fewer fighters at 115 pounds, and fans will be even more disinterested in watching their fights.
The only possible benefit is that a 115-pound division might aid the UFC’s overseas expansion. White himself noted this in an interview with MMAjunkie. “We’re going into Asia, Mexico, going into South America—and traditionally, they’re all smaller guys,” he said.
However, starting a half-baked weight class to appease some new fans at the sake of alienating your core market is a mistake. Flyweights were met with great enthusiasm by the media, but the numbers and the boos show that this wasn’t the sentiment amongst the majority of fans.
Thus, the UFC should abandon its plans for 115 pounds lest it winds up with another division which the bulk of fans dread watching.
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After nearly submitting Jon Jones in the first round of their UFC 152 title fight, Vitor Belfort was forced to tap in the fourth round. Belfort showed a ton of heart but just was not able to get anything going against the champ. While Belfort…
After nearly submitting Jon Jones in the first round of their UFC 152 title fight, Vitor Belfort was forced to tap in the fourth round.
Belfort showed a ton of heart but just was not able to get anything going against the champ.
While Belfort was once the 19-year-old kid who ran through his UFC competition, he now finds himself as a 35-year-old who may be on the tail end of his career.
For many fans, and Belfort alike, though, we know the lion still has some fight left in him.
Here are some fights he should consider taking next.