UFC 285: T-Mobile Arena; Las Vegas
If this was a court of law, the numbers are proof that you can’t argue. And they are all in Jon Jones favor. Making one think so much for ring rust. The walking through of Ciryl Gane he predicted came through. And the only damage he suffered was a soft kick to the groin, before finishing Gane in 124-seconds; stunning the Frenchman. The last time he had an opening round finish was 2013 versus Chael Sonnen.
The guillotine was his seventh career submission. It also happened to be his first finish since Alexander Gustafsson 2 in 2018. He now has 18-main events under his belt, and 16-connsecutive. All while only having 23-UFC fights. Jones now has a 19-fight unbeaten streak and 15-title fight wins. Taking the time away to make this move up from light heavyweight paid off big time as he joins the list of two-division champions; albeit not concurrent.
Immediately taking control of the cage, he pushed Gane back. “Bones” gets a takedown, pulls him back down and scrambles to the back, and locked in the submission. Add up everything, and he is flawless when it is go-time. And there’s no way to argue that fact. The only thing now is to see if he shoots himself in the foot again.
So Much For Ring Rust, But Can He Do It Again
It obviously wasn’t Gane’s best performance. And we still really don’t know how Bones is at heavyweight. But if at International Fight Week in July if Stipe Miocic is the next fight we’ll get a better picture. Miocic is a better wrestler, solid chin, and can more than hold his own on the feet. Plus he’s very careful there too. Then again, he’s been away for a long time as well.
Outside of Jones win streak right now, the two-hottest fighters at heavyweight fight in April. So the winner of Sergei Pavlovich and Curtis Blaydes might very well have a November or December date with history. Blaydes’ wrestling can definitely hang with him. And Pavlovich has tnt in his hands. And if that’s the fight it might bring back memories of Bones and Dominik Reyes. Jones does have a lot of miles on his body. So the question of how long would he stick around to try to clean out this division as well.
Although Dana White has said he will never offer Francis Ngannou another contract. But that still is the fight UFC fans clamor for more than anything.
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