Tag: UFC 210

Heading into next week’s (Sat., July 29, 2017) stacked and awaited UFC 214 from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, a polarizing MMA legend has returned to the official UFC rankings.

This week’s list features the return of former pound-for-pound great Jon Jones, the longtime light heavyweight champion who only lost the belt because of his outside-the-cage troubles and will face arch rival Daniel Cormier in a highly anticipated – and oft-rescheduled – rematch in the UFC 214 main event.

“Bones” is widely regarded as arguably the best mixed martial artist of all-time, and his torrid run as champion from 2011-2015 where he finished a slew of former champions and legends in their own right, ranks as quite possibly the best stretch any UFC fighter has displayed in the octagon. The streak included a unanimous decision win over Cormier in January 2015, and it was thought their highly-publicized rivalry had been put to bed.

But “DC” then went on to capitalize on “Bones’” next, and perhaps, greatest transgression when he was involved in a hit-and-run automobile accident in Albuquerque, New Mexico that left a 25-year-old pregnant woman with a broken arm in April 2015, going on to take his place and submit Anthony “Rumble” Johnson in the UFC 187 headliner to win the title that May.

With Jones sorting out legal issues, he was stripped of the title, and Cormier went on to defend the now-official belt against Alexander Gustafsson in a “Fight of the Year” contender at UFC 192, outlasted Anderson Silva at last summer’s UFC 200 when Jones was forced out of their rematch just days prior because of a USADA drug test, and finally submitted “Rumble” again at April’s UFC 210 from New York.

“Bones,” meanwhile, has only fought once since their original bout, beating late replacement Ovince Saint Preux at UFC 196 last April when Cormier was forced out of that scheduled rematch with a groin injury.

Obviously, it’s been a long and winding road full of speed bumps for Cormier and Jones to finally face off once again, and the MMA world is cautiously awaiting that the fight will finally happen after three years of the rivalry – even with less than two weeks away.

Prior to the bout, however, Jones has regained a spot on the rankings, coming in at No. 7 on the pound-for-pound list and taking the No. 1 spot at light heavyweight over from Gustafsson. Jones bumped a host of top-ranked and active UFC fighters including champions Tyron Woodley, Michael Bisping, Amanda Nunes, and Robert Whittaker down a notch. There’s no doubt that a healthy, dependable Jones would rank above those fighters if he were actively defending the belt; there’s a case to be made he would still be above new pound-for-pound leader Demetrious Johnson if that were the case.

It’s not, however, and Jones simply needs to prove he can make it to a fight to stay on these rankings, as he’s shown time and again the actual fighting isn’t the hard part. What do you think of his ranking? Is it right too low, or too high given his outside-the-octagon run-ins with law enforcement and repeated substance abuse issues?

Check out the fully updated rankings via UFC.com here:

POUND-FOR-POUND
1 Demetrious Johnson
2 Conor McGregor
3 Daniel Cormier
4 Stipe Miocic
5 Max Holloway
6 Cody Garbrandt
7 Jon Jones *NR
8 Joanna Jedrzejczyk -1
9 Tyron Woodley -1
10 Dominick Cruz -1
11 Michael Bisping -1
12 Jose Aldo -1
13 Amanda Nunes -1
14 Robert Whittaker -1
15 TJ Dillashaw -1

FLYWEIGHT
Champion: Demetrious Johnson
1 Joseph Benavidez
2 Henry Cejudo
3 Ray Borg
4 Wilson Reis
5 Jussier Formiga
6 Sergio Pettis
7 Brandon Moreno
8 Ben Nguyen
9 Tim Elliott +3
10 John Moraga
11 Ian McCall
12 Dustin Ortiz -3
13 Alexandre Pantoja +1
14 Louis Smolka -1
15 Magomed Bibulatov

BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Cody Garbrandt
1 Dominick Cruz
2 TJ Dillashaw
3 Raphael Assuncao
4 John Lineker
4 Jimmie Rivera -1
6 Bryan Caraway
7 John Dodson
8 Aljamain Sterling
9 Thomas Almeida
10 Marlon Moraes
11 Eddie Wineland
12 Pedro Munhoz
13 Rob Font
14 Matthew Lopez
15 Johnny Eduardo

FEATHERWEIGHT
Champion: Max Holloway
1 Jose Aldo
2 Frankie Edgar
3 Ricardo Lamas
4 Cub Swanson
5 Chan Sung Jung
6 Yair Rodriguez
7 Jeremy Stephens
8 Brian Ortega
9 Renato Moicano
10 Dennis Bermudez
11 Dooho Choi +1
12 Darren Elkins -1
13 Mirsad Bektic
14 Renan Barao
15 Jason Knight

LIGHTWEIGHT
Champion: Conor McGregor
1 Khabib Nurmagomedov
2 Tony Ferguson
3 Eddie Alvarez
4 Edson Barboza
5 Justin Gaethje +1
6 Nate Diaz -1
7 Kevin Lee
8 Dustin Poirier
9 Michael Johnson
10 Michael Chiesa
11 Al Iaquinta
12 Beneil Dariush
13 Anthony Pettis
14 Evan Dunham
15 Gilbert Melendez

WELTERWEIGHT
Champion: Tyron Woodley
1 Demian Maia
2 Stephen Thompson
3 Robbie Lawler
4 Jorge Masvidal
5 Carlos Condit +1
6 Neil Magny -1
7 Donald Cerrone
8 Santiago Ponzinibbio +6
9 Colby Covington
10 Rafael Dos Anjos
11 Gunnar Nelson -3
12 Kamaru Usman
13 Dong Hyun Kim -2
14 Ryan LaFlare -1
15 Tarec Saffiedine

MIDDLEWEIGHT
Champion: Michael Bisping
1 Robert Whittaker (Interim Champion)
2 Yoel Romero
3 Luke Rockhold
4 Jacare Souza
5 Chris Weidman +1
6 Anderson Silva +1
7 Derek Brunson +1
8 Kelvin Gastelum *NR
9 David Branch
10 Krzysztof Jotko
11 Vitor Belfort
12 Thales Leites
13 Tim Boetsch
14 Uriah Hall
15 Thiago Santos

LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Daniel Cormier
1 Jon Jones *NR
2 Alexander Gustafsson -1
3 Jimi Manuwa -1
4 Glover Teixeira -1
5 Volkan Oezdemir -1
6 Mauricio Rua -1
7 Corey Anderson -1
7 Ovince Saint Preux
9 Misha Cirkunov -1
10 Ilir Latifi -1
11 Rogerio Nogueira -1
12 Patrick Cummins -1
13 Gian Villante
14 Tyson Pedro -2
15 Gadzhimurad Antigulov -1

HEAVYWEIGHT
Champion: Stipe Miocic
1 Alistair Overeem
2 Fabricio Werdum
3 Cain Velasquez
4 Junior Dos Santos
5 Francis Ngannou
6 Mark Hunt
7 Derrick Lewis
8 Alexander Volkov
9 Stefan Struve
10 Marcin Tybura
11 Aleksei Oleinik
12 Tim Johnson
13 Andrei Arlovski
14 Travis Browne
15 Curtis Blaydes

WOMEN’S STRAWWEIGHT
Champion: Joanna Jedrzejczyk
1 Claudia Gadelha
2 Karolina Kowalkiewicz
3 Rose Namajunas
4 Jessica Andrade
5 Tecia Torres
6 Michelle Waterson
7 Carla Esparza
8 Cynthia Calvillo +6
9 Randa Markos
10 Joanne Calderwood -2
11 Felice Herrig -1
12 Paige VanZant -1
13 Cortney Casey -1
14 Maryna Moroz -1
15 Jessica Aguilar

WOMEN’S BANTAMWEIGHT
Champion: Amanda Nunes
1 Valentina Shevchenko
2 Holly Holm
3 Julianna Pena
4 Ronda Rousey
5 Raquel Pennington
6 Sara McMann
7 Cat Zingano
8 Germaine de Randamie +2
9 Liz Carmouche -1
10 Alexis Davis -2
11 Marion Reneau
12 Ketlen Vieira
13 Bethe Correia
14 Katlyn Chookagian -1
15 Leslie Smith *NR

The post UFC Rankings Update: Jon Jones Is Back – For Now appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

In the time after his impressive fifth-round stoppage over Glover Teixeira in the main event of last weekend’s UFC Fight Night 109 from Stockholm, top-ranked UFC light heavyweight Alexander Gustafsson made it clear that he didn’t like Jon Jones as a person even if he was the greatest fighter in MMA history.

Late yesterday, the still-suspended pound-for-pound king responded to “The Mauler’s” drubbing by going off in a brutal Twitter rant. A few hours after that, Gustafsson reacted to “Bones” online assault with a few responses of his own. First, he said that although he roots for Daniel Cormier, he hopes Jones wins at UFC 214, and would pray for the former champ after he beat him:

I root for @dc_mma but I want u to win, and after the way I beat u, I promise I will pray for you. Happy now?

— Alexander Gustafsson (@AlexTheMauler) June 1, 2017

The barb was calm enough, yet Gustafsson took the trash talk to an all-new level in replying to “Bones”” suggestion that he lost to him at UFC 165 and Cormier at UFC 192 due to a lack of heart. Gustafsson thinks his loss to Jones came from another more nefarious aspect of the fight game – the fact that USADA wasn’t testing elite UFC athletes at the time:

No my friend, against you it was because of the absence of @usantidoping

— Alexander Gustafsson (@AlexTheMauler) June 1, 2017

The slick retort may be the usually reserved Gustafsson’s best-ever instance of smack talk, as the respectful fighter doesn’t normally build up his matches with pre-fight verbal assaults, choosing to let his hands and feet do the talking in the octagon. Jones expectedly denied that his razor-thin unanimous decision over “The Mauler” was due to any form of performance-enhancing substance, but with Jones suspended for just that, it’s hard to argue with the top contender’s insistence.

Then Jones appeared to be amusingly hurt by the whole conversation, even though he started the entire war of words himself. The oft-troubled champ evoked a rule they teach young school children to close the conversation in an unexpected way, saying he was done with “The Mauler” for now:

Next time if you don't have anything nice to say, you know the rest. I'm done with you for now

— Jon Bones Jones (@JonnyBones) June 1, 2017

Jones’ knowing he was only done with Gustafsson for now may be a telling prediction, as it seems the Swedish star has done enough to get the next shot at the winner of “Bones’” rematch with arch rival Cormier at July 29’s UFC 214 from Anaheim.

But we all know Jones making it the cage has become anything but a certainty in recent years; in fact, the cold truth of the matter is we’re more likely to see another highly anticipated bout be canceled for one reason or another, be it injury to either man or continuing legal and drug test issues for Jones. The UFC could most definitely be in the realm of considering how many more chances they will give the decorated Jones, but with a disappointing lack of stars present for the promotion in 2017, they could attempt to book fights for the onetime-indestructible titleholder.

No one could blame them, of course, because Cormier vs. Jones II could easily be the highest-selling PPV event in the barren desert that the year has presented the promotion in terms of overall estimated buyrates. In a sport as volatile as MMA, that’s just the fight game.

The UFC could use Jones’ trouble-free return to face Cormier and then perhaps Gustafsson in what could legitimately turn out to be two of the bigger rematches in UFC history. Just don’t count on it.

The post Alexander Gustafsson Reacts To Jon Jones Trolling Him appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.