Tag: UFC 172

In one of the most exciting fights of the year thus far, light heavyweight champion Jon Jones (20-1) defeated No. 1 contender Glover Teixeira (22-3) via unanimous decision on Saturday night in the main event of UFC 172.

Not only did Jones successfully defend his championship, but there were several other fights on the card that had MMA fans on their feet with excitement. Saturday’s show was undoubtedly worth the price tag.

Here are the results from Saturday’s pay-per-view and a review of the main event.

Breaking Down Jones vs. Teixeira

There were many fans that expected Teixeira to use his 20-fight winning streak to his advantage on Saturday and give Jones a tougher fight, but the champion’s ability to adapt and overcome is second to none.

Teixeira did not try to out-think his opponent on Saturday but instead leaned on his proven striking ability. The problem was that he was taking too much time setting up for punches, and Jones was able to thwart the attacks.

After Saturday’s fight, Jones spoke to Brett Okamoto of ESPN.com about his game plan against Teixeira and how it changed on the fly:

It was a lot of what we thought it would be. Glover doesn’t always tend to be versatile. We foresaw a lot of things and sure enough, it happened that way. It was a lot of improv. Game plan was to stick takedowns and pick him apart from a distance. I realized he was winding up on his punches so I switched game plans and fought at extremely close range. It worked out great.

With superior wrestling skills and the ability to keep the fight close along the cage and in the center of the Octagon, Jones managed to win each of the five rounds and was the clear winner when the final bell rang.

Teixeira is a great fighter, but he’s not on Jones’ level.

Just as MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani and many other UFC fans have already started looking forward to Jones vs. Gustafsson, the defending champion must immediately shift his focus to his next title defense:

While there is no questioning Jones’ ability to strike with the best in the world or take people down against the best wrestlers in the sport, his biggest strength is his intelligence and ability to adjust on the fly.

Jones will need all of his in-ring I.Q. against another smart fighter like Gustafsson. After proving he was far better than Teixeira, he will be forced to square off against a man who has the ability to beat him.

For Jones, there is no rest after another successful title defense.

*Stats via UFC.com.

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Men and women share many sports but are generally kept separated at all times. In retrospect, that made season 18 of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF18) something special, looking back on it. 

While it was initially panned by fans for being either a ratings ploy for Fox Sports 1 or a complete departure from the show’s initial concept of highlighting fighters’ development rather than being “just another reality show,” it exceeded the expectations of many by avoiding the hypersexuality or melodrama one can expect from having a bunch of 20-something-year-olds locked in a house together.

That isn’t what made it special, though. What made it special was how it gave us a true sample of eight men and eight women in similar stages of their athletic careers (for the most part) that we can compare and contrast for years to come.

The early analysis, though, is not pretty.

In general, The Ultimate Fighter features high-upside prospects who potentially have the skills to survive in the UFC. For the most part, that was the case with TUF18 (long-time MMA veterans Shayna Baszler and Roxanne Modafferi fought as well), but one huge difference has surfaced.

The men have progressed much, much faster than the women.

That difference surfaced at UFC 172, which featured two cast members from TUF18: Jessamyn Duke and Chris Beal.

Both of them lost in their second fight of the season (to gain admission to “The House,” fighters had to win a bout against another potential contestant). Duke, despite losing to Raquel Pennington, was signed to the roster to compete at the season’s finale opposite fellow former contestant Peggy Morgan (who she beat via unanimous decision). Beal was cut by the UFC but was brought back following an impressive knockout win at BAMMA USA 12.

The difference in terms of where they stand, both relative to their respective champions and in general as mixed martial artists, was profound.

Duke enters the cage with a rare set of physical skills for a female fighter. With a long 5’11” frame and a 73″ reach, she can theoretically stifle fighters with rangy jabs when standing, land devastating knees and uppercuts in the clinch and lock up serpent-like submissions on the ground. The sky is the limit for her, right?

In the cage last night, against a substantially smaller, thoroughly untested Bethe Correia, Duke was lit up standing and made some serious mistakes on the ground. She demonstrated some improvements in the clinch, as she debuted some nice Judo-style throws and trips—courtesy of the months she has spent with Ronda Rousey, of course—but in no way did she look the part of a honed, dangerous fighter.

On the opposite side was Beal. He fought a lightning-quick Patrick Williams. Williams demonstrated absurd speed and dazzling takedowns.

While Duke struggled in all areas of the cage, Beal identified a small mistake Williams was making and turned that into a brutal flying knee knockout. The win earned him a sizable “Performance of the Night” check and landed him on Sportscenter‘s Top 10 the following morning (in the No. 2 spot, no less).

It was a stark contrast and doesn’t end there. Cody Bollinger, who was ejected from the show several weeks into taping due to a failed weight cut, has beaten a well-regarded Tyson Nam and could end up vaulting into the division’s top 10 with a win over Marlon Moraes in an upcoming World Series of Fighting bout. Fellow male TUF contender Anthony Gutierrez has also posted a win with Titan Fighting Championships.

The only other female member of the TUF18 cast to return to the cage was Pennington. Like Duke, Pennington has the physical tools to succeed but simply doesn’t seem to know how to use them. She, too, lost to a less-than-fearsome opponent in Jessica Andrade, who won in convincing fashion with skills that were certainly not becoming of a professional combat athlete.

Of course, it isn’t fair to completely dismiss the female competitors from The Ultimate Fighter season 18 quite yet. As we’ve seen with other budding fighters, both male and female, massive improvements can be made seemingly overnight. 

At this point, though, it seems like the males are growing at a much greater rate than the females. How the different contestants progress over time is definitely worth keeping an eye on.

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Jiu-jitsu, in case you hadn’t realized it, is hard.

It’s a marriage of the mental, physical and technical that takes years to perfect. Actually, it takes years to even become serviceable, much less expert. There are times when things click into place and flawless execution is the reward, but those times come between long spurts of work and plenty of failure and missed opportunities.

That’s why the perfection is so rewarding, though. It’s why, from the first time you put on a gi to the first time you hit a submission to the first time you hit a perfect submission, you’re driven.

There’s nothing like that feeling, and no sport rewards it the way jiu-jitsu does: the charge of simulated life-and-death, the ultimate checkmate broken up only by a simple tap.

On Saturday night at UFC 172, Luke Rockhold exhibited perfection. His win was a technical masterclass, a step-by-step showcase of how to take a bigger man who relies on raw power and overcome him with the most intricate of applied technique.

In a sport that is becoming increasingly infused with wrestle-boxers who learn submission defense and a few attacks from each position, Rockhold’s win was not only remarkable, it was in utterly rarefied air.

The action began with Tim Boetsch predictably trying to be the aggressor. Since developing a reputation as a slow starter, he’s begun a thrust of trying to get off earlier, and that looked to be the plan against Rockhold.

Hunt for a power double, beat him up on the ground, repeat as needed.

Only Rockhold, who is appreciated for his kickboxing more often than not, is a skilled mat technician. He’s a jiu-jitsu black belt who followed that path to MMA and took to striking with surprising slickness as his career evolved. People call him a striker, but he’s a submission ace first and foremost.

With those tools in his proverbial tool belt, he was able to catch Boetsch by surprise. On that telegraphed double leg, Rockhold sprawled and got to work on the opening that Boetsch left, slipping his leg diagonally across Boetsch’s neck and out through his armpit. That opened up an inverted triangle, which he then closed off.

From there it was academic. Boetsch was willing to struggle because that’s what he had to do, but it’s the type of position and execution that is not seen at a high level in MMA. People aren’t ready for a guy to slap on an inverted triangle from a sprawl, and they’re certainly not expecting him to go through a checklist of attacks until one works.

Only that’s what Rockhold did.

Once he established the position, he began looking for ways to get Boetsch out of there. He fished for an arm. He adjusted his hips and tried to force his weight down onto Boetsch’s back enough to close the triangle that had formed on his front. He bridged and rolled, continuously looking for angles or new options to present for a finish.

And one did.

He was finally, after one last adjustment to the triangle, able to isolate Boetsch’s arm thanks to a slight shift of the hips, which freed the arm from any protection. Rockhold, knowing that such a reaction would come from the hip pressure, wasted no time latching onto it and wrenching it into a kimura to secure the win.

It was the endgame for the type of jiu-jitsu performance that is not seen in MMA anymore. It’s was the endgame for the type of jiu-jitsu performance that is not seen even in jiu-jitsu anymore.

Rockhold offered up a practiced, focused implementation of the right technique at the right moment, adjusting as needed until the path to victory revealed itself. Once it did, it was simply a matter of walking that path.

He did just that on Saturday night. He didn’t win a performance bonus for it, mostly because the subtleties of his submission didn’t match the flailing foot-tapping that ended Joseph Benavidez vs. Tim Elliott, but that’s almost beside the point.

Rockhold earned something more valuable than the bonus: perfection. He’s been practicing jiu-jitsu long enough to know that you can’t put a price on that.

Follow me on Twitter @matthewjryder!

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After Jon Jones (20-1) successfully defended his UFC Light Heavyweight Championship at UFC 172 against Glover Teixeira (22-3) via a unanimous decision, his reign of supremacy over the division has reached legendary proportions.

With seven consecutive title defenses, Jones has taken on every challenger put in front of him and dominated him. Just as it is in every other division, though, there will be several top contenders looking to take the title.

Here is how the light heavyweight division shakes out after a wild night at UFC 172.

The No. 1 Contender: Alexander Gustafsson

Now that Jones successfully defended his title, he must shift his focus to the next title defense. As UFC President Dana White announced, via Mike Whitman of Sherdog.com, Alexander Gustafsson will get his rematch for the light heavyweight belt.

Jones and Gustafsson first went head-to-head in September 2013, and after five rounds of brutal back-and-forth action, the defending champion was awarded the decision victory. The fight was named Fight of the Night and awarded Fight of the Year honors as well.

Gustafsson bounced back in his first fight after the defeat and destroyed Jimi Manuwa with a TKO finish. While Jones has been devastating his challengers during his reign with brutal striking, the same can be said for Gustafsson.

With both men willing to do whatever it takes to steal a win in the Octagon, the upcoming battle between Jones and Gustafsson could easily steal the show and win Fight of the Years honors once again.

The Title Eliminator Fans Want: Daniel Cormier vs. Anthony Johnson

One of the biggest winners from Saturday’s pay-per-view was light heavyweight contender Anthony Johnson. While beating Phil Davis was a huge victory on its own, the fact that it happened in Johnson’s first fight back with the UFC was even more important.

Johnson re-signed with the company in February.

Before he can be considered a favorite to contend for the title, though, he must beat one of the top fighters in the division. With Daniel Cormier scheduled to fight Dan Henderson at UFC 173 and expected to take on the winner of Jones vs. Gustafsson, according to White, the potential bout between Cormier and Johnson is exactly what the division needs.

When a fighter like Jones dominates the division for so long, fans become tired of the futile attempts by the challengers. As we saw against Teixeira Saturday night, it was clear that Jones was far more talented than his opponent.

A battle between Cormier and Johnson would prove just how deep the division is.

As long as Cormier is able to defeat Henderson in May, the possibility of the potential title eliminator taking place as the co-main event for the battle between Jones and Gustafsson should have MMA fans ecstatic about the possibilities.

*Stats via UFC.com.

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