Two major stories elbowed their way through the stacked night of fights to emerge as major headlines. The first involves Jon Jones going from rising star to title contender in a matter of seconds. Jones will now just have 6 weeks to prepare for the top 205-pound fighter in the world. The second addresses Anderson Silva’s impressive front-kick knock out and then odd if not downright amusing credit to Steven Segal. These are only the most dominating stories, certainly not to be confused with classifying them as the only stories all-together. UFC 126 offered plenty of talking points for the MMA universe to ponder as we enter a very busy time for the sport. Here is a breakdown of the top 5 stories.
- Jon Jones Replaces Evans at UFC 128
You heard that right folks, after winning at UFC 126 Jon Jones will face by far his toughest challenge at UFC 128. That is just 6 weeks to prepare himself for Shogun Rua, a top-tier veteran in the prime of his career. I for one have been on the Jon Jones bandwagon since his fight with Stephan Bonnar in early 2009. However, I think this is my stop. Jones looked impressive against Ryan Bader but something seemed kind of off. Both fighters looked a little less technical in this fight, a little sloppier. Maybe that was because both had to rely more on their technique given the fact that they could not physically bully one another around like their previous opponents. This is troubling given the fact that Shogun is light-years ahead of anyone Jones has fought with regards to his stand up attacks and will likely present submission attacks that Jones has not seen outside the training room. The whole situation is probably the best we could hope for given the restraints, but it will ring a bit unfortunate regardless of the result. If Shogun wins Jones takes a defeat in the most crowded division in the sport, likely setting him back a year to two before he was ready for a title shot to begin with. If Jones wins then Shogun loses his belt after having the opponent changed on him a month out from the fight. Of course both men have the same amount of time but a title changing hands would come with a lot of question marks given nature of the change. What is done is done though and UFC will go down as the biggest night of Jon Jones young career.
- Anderson Silva Impressive: Owes it All to Segal
I find it a bit odd that the best overall striker in the world, who trains with current professional fighters honing their expertise in various striking based arts (Machida comes to mind) would owe his ability to use KO quality front kick to Steven Segal. Allow me to clarify. I am not saying that Segal is not a legitimate martial artists or that he doesn’t have knowledge to share with other martial artists. What I am saying is that I don’t believe that Anderson Silva’s KO over Vitor Belfort should be completely credited to the actor. To be honest, this is but a footnote to an otherwise very noteworthy fight. Against Vitor Belfort Anderson Silva was either due for an impressive win or a dethrowning and he came up with the former. Some confuse his hand and foot movement early in fights as fruitless dancing or showboating but nothing could be further from the truth. Anderson Silva measures his opponents’ reactions to his movements, constantly recording and storing the data for use later in the fight. It is my speculation that he saw something in Vitor’s reactions, particularly his upper body defense that led him to believe he could come strait in, slightly fake to the body, and then snap his foot to the face and land. Not even Silva expected a KO surely but one came non-the less. With another opponent dispatched Silva likely now waits on The Superfight. While some of us are not huge fans of the fight for reasons that can be discussed later, GSP vs Silva now sits at the end of the UFC’s current trajectory.
3. Rich Franklin Stuck Again
Rich Franklin might go down in history as one of the most sympathetic and underrated fighters in the sport. He has done everything the UFC has asked of him. He has been a last minute replacement, coached TUF, fought multiple fights at catch-weight, and rarely uttered a word about it. In UFC 126 he found himself finally where he wanted to be, against a top 205 pound fighter, but with a significant size disadvantage. In terms of skills he proved in rounds two and three that he matched up well with Forrest Griffin, but the size and reach discrepancies were too much to overcome. Now Rich Franklin finds himself once again stuck between a rock and a hard place. As long as Anderson Silva reigns over the middleweight division a move back to 185 pounds seems pointless. However, UFC 126 proved that fighting at 205 pounds is going to put him at a serious disadvantage against fighters on the larger side of the division. Frankin has claimed that he is not considering retirement, which is good news for fans, but now begs the question of what’s next. Franklin may very well be at a crossroads and his choice will dictate how much success he can find down the final stretch of his career.
- Japanese Fighters Come Up Short
It’s like Groundhog Day in the UFC when it comes to Japanese fighters, particularly those who enter the company highly touted. Time and time again they come as world beaters, exotic fighters from another land with skill-sets that American fighters will surely be ill-prepared to deal with and leave walk out opening their UFC careers with loses. This is not to say that Japanese fighters are inherently inferior to American, Brazilian, Canadian, or European fighters, but the reality speaks for itself. There are many alternative explanations, including my feeling that Japanese fighters are not as effective at cutting weight, rendering them much smaller than fighters who are. Yushin Okami has battled his way through the hard times to live up to the hype… sort of. Oddly enough Okami is one fighter Zuffa has not put its hype machine behind and one fighter that few fans were pining to see fight top competition before he made his name in the UFC. UFC 126 saw two more Japanese fighters, Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto and Michihiro Omaigawa, fall short in their debut, a familiar song for long time MMA fans. Neither man should be written off. Things happen and both fighters were put in tough spots against talented opponents. The news here isn’t really new, its confirmation. There is something in the style or culture of Japanese fighter that does not align well with Western MMA and until fighters start breaking the cycle the trend will continue.
- Miguel Torres and Antonio Banuelos Don’t Put Best Foot Forward for WEC Fighters
It isn’t so much that it is disappointing that Antonio Banuelos lost or didn’t put on a flashy fight, but that he didn’t seem to do anything he needed to do to win, that he sabotaged himself. This fight could have been a showcase of the excitement bantamweight fighters bring to the cage. Instead it was a lot of yawns and looks at the time. Banuelos seemed like he bet against himself and was ok sitting right in Torres’ range, taking the lose and the blame for a boring fight. Chances are he did bet against himself in a very personal sense. Banuelos looked defeated before a punch was thrown, ready to take a lose as long as he wasn’t finished. This is a shame for two reasons. First, Banuelos take a huge hit to his career, losing on the big stage and looking bad doing it. He might have been better off going for broke and getting finished in the first round. Second, the WEC class isn’t exactly batting 1.000 right now. All fight fans like myself do is ramble on about how impressed everyone will be with the lighter divisions and now our deep seeded fears of tentativeness and big show jitters may be coming to life. Lets hope we have seen a lesson learned and future featherweight and bantamweight bouts bring the excitement fight fans are use to.
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