News and thoughts on the rise of Jon Jones and his upcoming title shot against Shogun Rua, results from UFC 126, Kenny Florian and Tyson Griffin cutting to featherweight, Gilbert Melendez re-signing with Strikeforce and more!
On March 19, 2011, in Newark, New Jersey, 23-year-old Jon "Bones" Jones will attempt to become the youngest champion in UFC history. In just 3 years, the New Yorker has gone from being a no-name fighter making his debut in Foxborough, Massachusetts, to having an opportunity to be the #1 fighter in one of the sport's most stacked divisions. The road to becoming the #1 contender was filled with lucky breaks, excitement, and constant improvement.
After just 6 fights and 3 months in the sport, Jones was called up to the big time. At the time a member of Team BombSquad, Jones was pegged to take on former IFL standout Andre Gusmao. It wasn't that Jones was seen as such a can't-miss talent that he was brought up quickly, it was more of a case of the UFC needed a fighter to replace an injured Tomasz Drawl at UFC 87, and UFC matchmaker Joe Silva must have seen Jones and decided to give him a call. Had it not been for Drawl's injury, Jones would have likely had more fights on the local circuit, but I'm sure he'd be in the UFC anyway, maybe just without the title shot.
Jones' earned a unanimous decision victory over Gusmao, but it wasn't exactly a performance that would make you think he'd be fighting for the championship in two-and-a-half-years. That performance would be saved for his next time in the cage.
The true coming out party for "Bones" came against Stephan Bonnar at UFC 94. Unlike his fight at UFC 87, fighting a name guy like Bonnard ensured Jones that he would be on the main card this time. On the undercard of the massive fight between champions Georges St-Pierre and B.J. Penn, it was by far the biggest stage Jones had ever fought on. That night, Jones went into the cage as a moderate betting underdog, but he emerged as a popular choice to be a future champion. His throws wowed the audience both in the arena and at home with his ability to effortlessly toss the veteran through the air. Perhaps the best moment of the fight came when the unorthodox Jones knocked Bonnar down with a spinning back elbow, bringing the crowd (and Joe Silva) to its feet.
Next up for Jones was a fight on an even bigger stage – UFC 100. This time, Jones wasn't fighting on the main card, but by this time everybody realized that he had huge potential. Once again, Jon showed his exciting and flashy style, landing another spinning back elbow that hurt his opponent Jake O'Brien. To end the fight, Jones showed off his submission game for the first time – finishing O'Brien with a modified guillotine.
In his next fight at The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights Finale , "Bones" was the center of attention – headlining the event against respected fighter Matt Hamill. Hamill, a three-time Division III National Champion, had yet to be outwrestled in his mixed martial arts career. That was about to change. Jones absolutely mauled Hamill, taking him down at will and mounting him soon after. However, after battering Hamill with illegal 12-to-6 elbows, Jones was disqualified. It remains the only loss on his record.
By now the UFC was even promoting Jones as their next big star. They decided to give him a tough test in Brandon Vera at the first UFC on Versus show. The UFC promoted the bout as Vera taking on a fighter that was very much reminiscent of himself. Upon entering the UFC as a heavyweight, Vera ran through respected heavyweights like Frank Mir and Assuerio Silva. He was pegged as a future star and promised to be a champion in two weight classes simultaneously. However, after a long contract dispute, Vera came back and was never the same fighter. In the fight, Jones took Vera down and literally smashed his face with an elbow in the first round. He followed that performance up by destroying veteran Vladimir Matyushenko at UFC on Versus 2 .
On Saturday night, Jones battled Ryan Bader in a fight billed to determine the future of the division. In one of the three headlining fights on one of the biggest UFC cards of the year, Jones dominated Bader and finished him off with a submission in the second round. It wasn't the flashiest performance, but it was a relatively easy win over a contender. After the fight, Joe Rogan informed Jones that the UFC wanted him to replace the injured Rashad Evans in a light heavyweight championship match against Mauricio "Shogun" Rua in just 6 weeks.
The UFC's decision to go with Jones for the shot was a calculated one. They could have given the title shot to veteran Randy Couture to go for the storybook ending on his career, but instead they went in the complete opposite direction. Jones has a ton of momentum behind him, and many feel that March 19 will mark a new era in the light heavyweight division. Win or lose, the fight can only do good things for Jones' development as a fighter. Entering the fight as a slight betting favorite, Jones could dethrone Josh Barnett as the youngest fighter to win a UFC title. While at this point I'd favor Rua, March 19 could be a day that will go down in history as the day the best ever won his first title.
As of this writing, Anderson Silva is the greatest fighter of all-time. Of course, the race is so tight that other two fighters in the running for that prestigious title, Georges St-Pierre and Fedor Emelianenko, could steal it from him in their next fights. Silva's first round knockout of Vitor Belfort marked his 8th consecutive title defense, which breaks the tie he had with Matt Hughes (who had 7 title defenses over two reigns). The fight itself was a bore until the ending. Many feared the counter-strikers would fail to get off and that it would evolve into a glorified dance contest, and that's pretty much how the first two minutes went. As he has done previously in fights with Demian Maia and Thales Leites, Anderson started dropping his hands and taking short jogs around the cage during the period of inaction. Finally, Belfort threw a punch and Silva came back with a head kick. Vitor then took Anderson down but Anderson got back to his feet within seconds. At that point Anderson started acting like he was in a fight (which makes me wonder what would have happen if Thales Leites and Demian Maia tried more actively to attack in earlier in their fights with the champ). Soon, he landed an incredible front kick that knocked Vitor down. After some follow-up punches, the referee jumped in to stop the fight. In a career riddled with highlight reel knockouts, this one was arguably the most spectacular. Now, all that's left to do is sit back and wait for Georges St-Pierre to beat Jake Shields so we can watch the biggest fight in the history of the sport.
Forrest Griffin proved that he's still a top light heavyweight with a clear-cut decision victory over Rich Franklin. Leading into this fight there had been an inordinate amount of people picking Franklin considering how closely matched the fight was, which I attribute to people becoming disenchanted with Griffin after his loss to Anderson Silva. This wasn't the exciting fight that everyone had anticipated, but it was okay. Forrest has a slew of options for his next fight, but given timing I would say Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Ryan Bader, or possibly the loser of the upcoming light heavyweight title showdown.
The biggest winner of UFC 126 had to be Jon Jones. Jones dominated the previously undefeated Ryan Bader and submitted him the second round. After the fight, Joe Rogan approached Jones for the post-fight interview. Rogan then alerted Jones that Rashad Evans would be unable to compete for the light heavyweight title at UFC 128 (which Jones knew since he trains with Evans), and told "Bones" that the UFC would like to give him the title opportunity. Overcome with emotion, Jones dropped to his knees immediately before rising to accept the bout with great enthusiasm. It was a great moment that felt like we were seeing something special. Though Jones has never proven to be a drawing card, I think UFC 128 tickets will become hotter as a result of the change. He has had a huge amount of hype in recent weeks, including Dana White saying he had the skills to become the best ever and Bruce Buffer saying that he would become the Muhammad Ali of MMA. If people think that they're going to see the guy that's going to go down in history as the best win his first title, then they'll go to great lengths to see it happen just to say they were there.
The first round of the battle between Jake Ellenberger and Carlos Eduardo Rocha was a fantastic display of grappling from the Brazilian. Rocha's smooth transitions and submission attempts reawakened the crowd after a lackluster fight between Miguel Torres and Antonio Banuelos. Unfortunately, the next two rounds weren't nearly as exciting. Ellenberger edged out Rocha in the final round and took the fight by decision, though judge Adalaide Byrd inexplicably scored the bout 30-27 for Rocha. This was Ellenberger's third consecutive win after his hard-fought decision loss to Carlos Condit in a fight that could have gone either way. Hopefully he gets to fight a top welterweight his next time out to make up for his scheduled bout against Jon Fitch being pulled out from under him.
Miguel Torres dominated Antonio Banuelos in a jab-fest that killed the crowd. This was Torres' first fight in the UFC after a successful career in the UFC, and it was probably the least exciting fight I've ever seen him in. Hopefully he doesn't get demoted to the preliminary card next time out, as he is a top contender at bantamweight and he's typically a very exciting fighter. Banuelos showed nothing here and his job could be in question. It's not that he's a bad fighter as much as he was involved in a bad fight, and the UFC won't hesitate to cut a guy like that, as shown in their release of Gerald Harris.
Donald Cerrone was successful in his UFC debut against Paul Kelly. Kelly, whose UFC record stands at 5-4 with the loss, sucker punched Cerrone instead of touching gloves at the beginning of the fight. He apparently tried to explain his actions after the fight, but I couldn't quite make out what he was saying. "Cowboy" looked good on the ground, but he didn't seem to perform to the best of his abilities on the feet. The UFC should match him up with Cole Miller next for a payoff of the back-and-forth they've had since the UFC-WEC merger.
Chad Mendes plead his case to be a top contender at featherweight with a unanimous decision victory over Michihiro Omigawa. Though Mendes won every round, the fight wasn't quite as one-sided as the 30-27 scores would indicate. Mendes is showing clear improvements in his striking, but I seriously doubt his ability to compete with champion Jose Aldo. Another fight is certainly in order before he gets a shot at the winner of Aldo vs. Mark Hominick.
Demetrious Johnson looked great in defeating "Kid" Yamamoto by decision. Yamamoto hasn't been the same since his knee injury, going 1-3 since that time. The loss for Yamamoto is disheartening to fans with dreams of a bout against Urijah Faber, but going into the fight everyone knew in the back of their mind that he wasn't the elite fighter he once was. "Mighty Mouse" surprised Yamamoto with his quick shot, but he was never able to keep "Kid" on the ground for an extended period of time. He moves into title contention with the win, and I'd love to see him against Joseph Benavidez next.
Paul Taylor was a shoo-in for knockout of the night until Anderson Silva came along. The Englishman landed a head kick on Ultimate Fighter veteran Gabe Ruediger and followed up with punches for the knockout victory. He really outclassed Ruediger in the stand-up for the whole fight.
Ricardo Romero was able to weather the storm of Seth Petruzelli at UFC 116, but Kyle Kingsbury came at him like an F5 tornado. Kingsbury mauled Romero for a stoppage victory in just 21 seconds. I'd like to see Kingsbury against a mid-level light heavyweight after that type of performance.
I haven't seen the fight yet, but Mike Pierce stopped Kenny Robertson early in the second round of their fight. Though his curtain-jerking position on the card would have you think otherwise, Pierce is a very good fighter. He was a late replacement for Thiago Alves when he took on Jon Fitch at UFC 107 and did extremely well, even taking a round from the perennial #2 welterweight. Since then he has won three fights including Saturday's victory, but his boring style has prevented him from moving up on the card. Unless the UFC changes their tune on him, I'd expect him to take the same route Fitch did to the top – just keep winning fights until they can't deny you a spot on the main card.
Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Cyborg averages 561,000 viewers; peaks at 853,000. This is a great number for Strikeforce. The show, which featured two title defenses, narrowly missed the record numbers Carano vs. Cyborg put up for Showtime in August of 2009. It appears that 48-year-old NFL great Herschel Walker was the driving force behind the numbers. For Walker's debut in January of last year, Strikeforce pulled in 517,000 viewers, a number they didn't come close to until it was eclipsed last Saturday. I'm sure some will argue that Nick Diaz was the draw for the show, but I don't think that holds up very well. Diaz's October fight against KJ Noons averaged 350,000 viewers in a fight that was considerably more anticipated than his main event bout with "Cyborg" Santos. Viewership did peak during the main event, but that doesn't necessarily mean it was the biggest draw as it is very rare for viewership to peak for a non-main event fight. Walker was doing on a ton of media appearances leading up to the fight, including spots on ESPN, and that seems to be what pushed the event to such big numbers. Perhaps the best thing to come out of this is that Strikeforce did a good job of promoting the heavyweight tournament throughout the show, so it may have caught the attention of people tuning in to see Walker. If the February 12 show from New Jersey does better than the 412,000 viewers that Fedor vs. Werdum did last June, it would indicate that Strikeforce has done a very good job at promoting the heavyweight tournament. Hopefully it will push them to book their shows, or at least their big fights, further in advance so they can promote them on shows leading up to it.
Bellator season four to begin on March 5. Bellator Fighting Championships is back starting March 5, which is also the same date as the Strikeforce show headlined by Rafael Cavalcante vs. Dan Henderson. All Bellator shows will run on Saturdays on MTV2, which is probably the worst day of the week they could have chosen. At this point, Bellator will have competition from either the UFC or Strikeforce on five different nights of their twelve week season. Strikeforce typically starts their events at 10:00 eastern time, while Bellator will run from 9:00-11:00 eastern, so there will be some overlap. The UFC will run at least three events on the same night as Bellator. So not only will many fans that otherwise would watch Bellator be tuning into the UFC and Strikeforce, the latter two companies' shows will overshadow Bellator's in the pre-fight hype. Earlier this month the UFC reached an agreement with Spike TV to air 12 prelim specials, so specials for UFC's 128 and 129, will go head-to-head with Bellator. On March 26, the UFC will run a free Fight Night event on Spike TV headlined by Tito Ortiz vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, which will garner far more interest and viewership than Bellator. I'm not sure whose call it was to schedule Bellator's events like this, but this just sets them up for failure. Previously Bellator had run events on Thursday nights, which brought very little scheduling conflicts. In fact, if they ran on Thursday nights for season four, they would only have competition on one night. The competing event would be UFC on Versus 3, which will garner slightly less viewership than the three UFC events on Spike. Running events on Saturdays is a nonsensical move for Bellator, so it will be really interesting to see what they're situation is after this season ends, as there were rumors about their demise not too long ago.
UFC eyes August 6 return to Philadelphia for UFC 133. This looks to be the first of two pay-per-view offerings from the UFC in August, with the second being the already announced UFC: Rio event. The UFC did good business in their first visit to The City of Brotherly Love, drawing 17,411 fans for a gate of $3,550,000 for UFC 101. Unless a major fight is booked for the event, I don't see it surpassing those numbers this time around, but it should to fine business. Of course, the first event in Philadelphia was the double main event featuring BJ Penn vs. Kenny Florian and Anderson Silva vs. Forrest Griffin.
Kenny Florian is reportedly testing a cut to featherweight with the help of nutrition guru Mike Dolce. This is interesting news. Florian has lost in both of his lightweight title opportunities and in his last outing lost to Gray Maynard, so he's in a very odd situation at lightweight. Once the featherweight division entered the UFC, it was widely assumed that a fair number of lightweights would drop down to the division, even some that are high up in the rankings, but I never pegged Florian as one of those fighters. If the test cut goes well and he decides to move down a weight class, which is far from a sure thing, the 34-year-old Florian would instantly become one of the best featherweights in the world. A match-up with featherweight kingpin Jose Aldo would be a good match-up, especially considering that Aldo's management declined a fight at lightweight against Florian before the UFC-WEC merger was announced. If Florian does end up making the move, it would be the fourth different weight class he's fought in for the UFC. I can't think of anyone who has done that in the UFC, and the only two fighters that immediately come to mind that have done it elsewhere are BJ Penn and Joe Riggs. Penn of course debuted as a lightweight, then moved up to welterweight to fight Matt Hughes, later went up to middleweight to fight Rodrigo Gracie, and finally fought Lyoto Machida in an open-weight bout for which he came in at 191 lbs. In Riggs' case, he started off as a heavyweight and gradually moved on down to welterweight.
Shortly after the news of Florian's potential move, news broke of Tyson Griffin's intentions to drop to the featherweight division. After he put on one of the best performances of his career to close out 2009, Griffin was considered to be one of the top 10-15 lightweights in the world. Then in 2010 he was dominated by Evan Dunham, knocked out by Takanori Gomi, and lost a decision to Nick Lentz that most thought should have went the other way. Due to the controversial nature of his loss to Lentz, Griffin wasn't released after his third consecutive loss in the Octagon. Now Griffin has announced plans to move down to the 145-pound weight class after he recovers from a knee injury. This is interesting news because the UFC actually asked Griffin to move down to the weight class a few years ago, but under far different circumstances. Before Mike Brown came along, Urijah Faber was the reigning king of the featherweight division. Faber came out of his win over Jens Pulver with an incredible amount of momentum, and at that point the only loss in his career came against Tyson Griffin. Reportedly, when Zuffa tried to make the fight, Griffin told them there was no way he could get down to the featherweight division. Given his current intentions, one has to wonder whether or not the Xtreme Couture product lied about not being able to make the weight in order to stay in the UFC. If that is what happened, it provides even more reinforcement to the notion that many guys that should have been fighting in the featherweight division weren't because they wanted to be UFC fighters. That's why the featherweight division is so interesting, because those who are perceived to be the elite in that division may very well prove to be middle of the road fighters once more fighters start dropping to featherweight. Regardless, assuming he's not drained by the weight cut, Griffin is a great asset to the featherweight division. He's an exciting fighter as well as a very talented one.
Gilbert Melendez signs new multi-year contract with Strikeforce. Add Melendez's name to the list of Strikeforce stars signing long-term agreements with the San Jose-based promotion. I believe Melendez was under a champion's clause in his previous contract so he wouldn't have been able to go anywhere as long as he had the belt, but this contract keeps both parties happy with each other. While much of the top lightweight talent resides in the UFC, Strikeforce's division is respectable. A rematch with Tatsuya Kawajiri is expected to be next for Melendez, and there are still good challengers after that such as "JZ" Cavalcante and Lyle Beerbohm.
Rashad Evans could be in purgatory if Jon Jones beats "Shogun" Rua. Rashad Evans earned a shot at Mauricio Rua's light heavyweight title by defeating Quinton "Rampage" Jackson last May. After it was announced that Rua would be out for quite a while due to injury, Evans made the controversial decision to sit out and wait for his title shot. Now Evans won't be getting that title shot due to an injury of his own. As previously mentioned, Evans' teammate Jon Jones will step in to fight "Shogun" at UFC 128. If Jones comes out victorious against Rua (which the betting odds favor, though I'm not so sure about that), a situation would arise where the champion and top contender (Evans) would refuse to fight each other. I don't think it's very likely that Rashad would wait for Jones to lose the belt, and he would instead move to a different weight class. Although Evans has fought in the UFC at heavyweight in the past, he's a relatively small light heavyweight and would more likely drop to the middleweight division. However, he could run into some problems there as well. UFC President Dana White has stated that is Georges St-Pierre is victorious in his fight at UFC 129, then he would move up to middleweight to challenge Anderson Silva. St-Pierre happens to be a teammate of Evans, though they are based out of different locations (Georges in Montreal, Rashad in Albuquerque). Since they are currently separated by two weight classes, the issue of a possible meeting between the two has never come up, but I would be surprised if they were willing to fight each other. So if Georges and Jones win, the latter of which especially is by no means a guarantee, Rashad will be in a very strange place. He could move up to heavyweight, but it's hard to see him being competitive against elite heavyweights with such a great size disadvantage. Hell, maybe he would just petition the UFC with Rich Franklin to create that 195 lbs. weight class.
Tim Kennedy vs. Melvin Manhoef for Strikeforce: Feijao vs. Henderson. Kennedy has been slated to fight on this card for quite a while, but reports had him fighting Jason Miller and then Luke Rockhold. Now, Kennedy is matched up with vicious striker Melvin Manhoef, whose last Strikeforce appearance saw him get knocked out by Robbie Lawler. I expect Kennedy to take Melvin to the ground almost immediately.
Zoila Frausto vs. Karina Hallinan for Bellator 35. Frausto had a huge 2010, winning the Bellator 115 lbs. women's tournament and becoming the first person to defeat Megumi Fujii, albeit by controversial split-decision. This one is scheduled to be a non-title bout.
Despite reports to the contrary, Dana White confirms Wanderlei Silva vs. Brian Stann for UFC 130. This fight will either be a war or a first round knockout, possibly both. Silva hasn't fought since last February due to various injuries, while Stann is coming off of a huge knockout victory over Chris Leben. The only other person that was able to finish the iron-chinned Leben with strikes was none other than Anderson Silva.
That's all I have for this week. Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to leave feedback in the comment box or at the e-mail address below. You can follow me on Twitter for everything you could ever want out of a Twitter account. Thanks to Caposa on the UG for the UFC 126 gifs.
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