Ufc 145

[Lance Uppercut]

My body is ready.

If anybody is gonna beat Jones, it's Rashad. He's got an ideal blend of hand speed, explosiveness, and wrestling that he can use to get inside Jones' reach and land shots/get takedowns. That's easier said than done, and if Rashad does get under that wingspan, he would still have to contend with Jones' considerable greco clinch skills. It's a near perfect matchup.

I see Jones taking this via late TKO or decision, but both fighters will have their moments in a back and forth contest.

[Dualonymous]

I am anticipating an amazing fight. should be a good night at bww.

[Wackman3000]

I expect it to be a great fight as well. Rashad is no slouch and IMO one of the most athletic guys in the 205 division. With a solid wrestling base and quick hands like Lance said, I think he has the chance to put Jones on his back and take him out of his gameplan, which is what I think is the key to getting to Jon Jones. Get him out of his element and attack plan, and he has a tough time reacting. We saw this demonstrated very well in the first round of the Machida fight.

[Karak]

[Lance Uppercut]

The main event may have been just "ok" but the undercard was fantastic. I think those ridiculous standing elbows in the 2nd took away much of Evans' swag, and he couldn't find his rhythm from that point onward. People might criticize Jones for "unfairly" (lol) using his reach, but if reach was everything, Stefan Struve would be heavyweight champ of the world. He's just that damn good.

He's supposed to be fighting Hendo next, but outside of that epic right hand, I can't see any other way Hendo will win that fight. He'll probably just trust his chin and try to brawl, which would be ill-advised from what we've seen so far. Jones by guillotine.

The Mc(Mac)Donalds were beastly in their fights. Rory is a future 170 champ with the nastiest ground-and-pound I've seen in a while, and Michael is a part of a quickly emerging field of 135 contenders. The best next step for both fighters would be to face a wrestler to see if they can handle takedowns/being on their back.

Poor Brendan Schaub. 3 1st round KOs in a row. If that's not a glass chin, I don't know what is.



edit: One more, since these shoops are hilarious.

[Wackman3000]

I'm not sure why Evans didn't try for a takedown earlier in the fight. There were a couple really lazy leg grab attempts, but other than that he seemed content to try and bang with a guy who kept him at bay with his reach. One thing my friends and I noticed were how many times Jones and Evans tied up their hands in the old school WWF wrestling hand clasp. It made me think of this instantly (33 seconds in):



I give Hendo a punchers chance, but that's about it.

Rory is a beast, and at 22 years old can go nowhere but up.

So is Rothwell's win good enough to give him a rematch against Velasquez? Maybe throw Werdum against Velasquez?

[Lance Uppercut]

I like Werdum vs. Velasquez, and it's the fight that will probably happen. Rothwell would be a good alternative if Werdum happened to decline.

In the post-conference, Evans said he went for less takedowns because he was wary about the knees. Hell, I think he just respected Jones way too much. I agree, you need to get in his face and be aggressive (Machida had some success with this before getting the piss choked out of him); Jones biggest deficit is in his footwork and angles, and usually just moves forwards or backwards, so forward pressure is the way to go.

Problem with that, is, nobody's been able to really implement that plan because they get sliced up by elbows and knees.

[roboninja]

Man, Rory MacDonald looks amazing. So intense before the fights too. GSP should use his time off to go up a weight class and get out if the way.