Jon Jones: new UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, seen here with the weight of the world on his shoulders. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

UFC 128 was last night, and the theme of the event – from Dana White’s statements throughout the week right down  to Jon Jones‘s entrance music – was “boy, what a shame this is in Newark instead of Madison Square Garden.”

Unfortunately, the event paled in comparison to recent cards and even the forthcoming free Ultimate Fight Night card on Spike next week both on paper and in terms of entertainment value. Nothing was particularly bad, mind you, but nothing was particularly memorable either.

Save, of course, for the fulfillment of the Jon Jones prophecy.

Jones dominated defending champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua the entire fight, including what could generously be described as two 10-8 rounds followed by a merciful stoppage in the third. Rua came into the cage already looking tired and old, carrying with him the war-weary look that belies the fact that he’s still only 29-years-old himself.  A soft mid-section and early exhaustion indicated that conditioning has once again become an issue for Rua, making a Jones victory an inevitability.

This is not to take anything away from the new champion. At 23-years-old and with only three years of fight experience, Jon Jones has ascended the Light Heavyweight ranks in dominant and impressive fashion.

However, to coin a phrase, “I was not eempressed with his performahnce.”

This will surely put me in opposition with most MMA fans, but I could hardly qualify Jones’s win as a sign that we finally have a dominant Light Heavyweight champion. Rua went into this fight looking even worse than he did against Forrest Griffin, and Jones himself has some conditioning issues that nobody else wants to acknowledge. Did anybody else see him in the last minute of the first round, pawing at Rua with an arm he was barely able to lift up, huffing and puffing in the face of a fighter who was out on his feet and practically begging to be struck with a halfway decent tap to the chin that would have finished the fight?

Granted, these issues can and will be addressed by Greg Jackson and his camp. Jackson is no fool: he, unlike many fans, knows that Jones is going to have a lot more trouble against Rashad Evans than he did against Mauricio Rua. Evans has a better wrestling pedigree and isn’t likely to be wrestled into exhaustion like Rua was. He’ll come in motivated and with knowledge of Jones’s fight game due to training with him at Team Jackson. If Jones can get past Evans and do so in easy fashion, then I’ll buy that we finally have a Light Heavyweight champion who can defend his title successfully.

Until then, I’m just going to keep watching the hype train from a distance as the distant echo of a cry from years past echoes in my brain: “the Machida era has begun!”

OTHER NOTABLE ITEMS: After his devastating loss to Brendan Schaub, Dana White announced at the post-fight press conference that Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic was done with the UFC. It would be more accurate, though, to say the UFC is done with Cro Cop. … Urijah Faber didn’t put in the dominant performance against Eddie Wineland that so many expected, but that’s due to the fans’ lack of familiarity with Wineland. I was impressed, though, with how Faber didn’t panic in the first round and turned a negative into a positive, using his losing round to figure Wineland out and adapt his game plan accordingly. A bout with Cruz is next, and rumor has it they could be the coaches for the 14th season of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series. … After his win, Nate Marquardt told reporters he’s mulling a move down to Welterweight. I did observe that he looked smaller last night than he has in a long time, but a cut to 170 still seems like madness and isn’t something I would advise. … Jim Miller is now on a seven fight win streak, but his C.V. is less than impressive. It’ll be interesting to see what he does against the upper echelon in the division.

Full results:

  • LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP BOUT:
    Jon Jones def. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua – R3 2:37 via TKO (strikes)
  • BANTAMWEIGHT (135 lbs.):
    Urijah Faber def. Eddie Wineland via Unanimous Decision
  • LIGHTWEIGHT (155 lbs.):
    Jim Miller def. Kamal Shalorus – R3 2:15 via TKO (punches)
  • MIDDLEWEIGHT (185 lbs.):
    Nate Marquardt def. Dan Miller via Unanimous Decision
  • HEAVYWEIGHT (265 lbs.):
    Brendan Schaub def. Mirko Cro Cop – R3 3:44 via KO (punch)

Prelims

  • LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT (205 lbs.):
    Eliot Marshall def. Luiz Cane - R1 2:15 via TKO (punches)
  • LIGHTWEIGHT (155 lbs.):
    Edson Barboza def. Anthony Njokuani via Unanimous Decision
  • WELTERWEIGHT (170 lbs.)
    Mike Pyle def. Ricardo Almeida via Unanimous Decision
  • LIGHTWEIGHT (155 lbs.):
    Gleison Tibau def. Kurt Pellegrino via Split Decision
  • BANTAMWEIGHT (135 lbs.):
    Joseph Benavidez def. Ian Loveland via Unanimous Decision
  • CATCHWEIGHT (195 lbs.):
    Nick Catone def. Constantinos Philippou via Unanimous Decision
  • FEATHERWEIGHT (145 lbs):
    Eric Koch def. Raphael Assuncao – R1 2:32 via KO (punch)

One Response to Sunday Takedown: UFC 128 and our new Light Heavyweight Champion

  1. u2 says:

    I personally think Bones performance was once again almost flawless. I’ll give you Rua might not have been @ 100%, but he was nowhere near as bad as he came into the ring for Forest. I think Bones will roll through anyone Dana can muster up @ 205.

    The hardest thing for Bones leading up to the Rashad fight won’t be training, etc….. (Jones will destroy Rashad in about 5-7 minutes), it will be keeping his ego in check. Jones is going to have to realize that even though he’s the champ, Rashad is more popular and the fans and media love Rashad. If Jones let’s this get to him, and he starts running his mouth, he’ll instantly be a “villian”, and I don’t think he wants that label.

    P.S. Jones already dispatched a top notch wrestler in his demolision of Matt Hammill. And I’ll give you that Rashad is much quicker than Matt, however, Hammill has twice the chin as Rashad.

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