UFC’s debut on Versus clears up rankings for several fighters
Published by Zach Arnold on March 22nd, 2010 in Current Events

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After everything was said and done when Jon Jones put a beating on Brandon Vera (as expected), a few things became clear:

1. Jon Jones is a legitimate star in the Light Heavyweight division and will continue to mature over time into one of the best young talents in Mixed Martial Arts.

2. Brandon Vera is now on the jaybrone list officially as all talk and little bite.

3. Joe Rogan really hates the 12-to-6 elbow rule.

4. There is now a caste ranking system in place for the heavyweight division.

Let’s focus on #4 for a minute. The heavyweight picture was set after Junior Dos Santos went in and took care of business against a game, but very slow and bulky Gabriel Gonzaga. Santos was in better shape, quicker in the cage, and better technically-sound as a striker. He caught Gonzaga flat-footed with a counter left and dropped the big man to the mat. Junior’s power is so explosive and so fast that he easily catches opponents off-guard as much on defense as he does on offense.

After the fight, Gonzaga stated in an official UFC media interview that he got impatient and it cost him.

“I’m fine. Just, I miss a little bit, I missed a little bit of the timing, I kicked when I should have waited and he capitalized on top of my mistake and he did well to finish the fight.

“My game plan was chasing him a little bit to make him come up because he like to do the combinations and when he came up doing the combinations to put him down but I didn’t have the patience to apply the game plan. I laid that kick… it was too early, I should have waited a little bit more.”

Dos Santos was very happy with his fight performance.

“I’m very happy because yeah, we hoped for one more knockout. I’m looking for a knockout in all my fights and that’s it, I’m very happy. I trained a lot and when he kicked me, I countered my punch and I just waited for the right moment.”

A UFC interview asked JDS if he believed he could knockout out anyone in the heavyweight division. His response?

“Yeah, I can. I believe in so much in my hands and myself and I believe I can knock some guys here.”

Where does the win place JDS? It puts him in the second-tier category alongside Cain Velasquez and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

Where does the loss put Gonzaga? It puts him in the third-tier alongside fighters like Cheick Kongo. Kongo is trying to fight his way back into the second tier and made sure to methodically beat down Paul Buentello on Sunday to make it happen. He took Buentello down several times and pounded away at him. In the second round, Kongo started striking more and kept hammering Buentello on the ground until Paul tapped due to all the punishment he took in the fight (including a gruesome pinky finger injury). Kongo took advantage of Buentello’s relatively one-dimensional style plus the altitude, given that the UFC event took place in Broomfield, Colorado (right outside of Denver). Kongo had the better skill set and the better conditioning. The win over Buentello doesn’t really do a whole lot for his positioning in the heavyweight ranks, but it does prolong his career in the UFC.

Which means he may have a lot more going for him than Brandon Vera at this point.

Tell me if you’ve heard this storyline before going into a Brandon Vera fight — he’s sorry that he’s disappointed the fans, but he promises that he’s bringing back the old school Brandon Vera and that his opponent has never faced anyone like him before. Rinse, repeat, and do the cycle over and over again. That is the extent of Brandon Vera’s career these days in UFC. Jon Jones, like a lot of fighters, had enough of Vera’s act and obliterated him on Sunday night. Jones used a vicious elbow right to Vera’s eye socket to get the referee stoppage win. The two fighters have heat with each other and it showed early on with Vera getting prickly in the cage. Jones, however, overpowered Vera and simply outclassed him in the striking game. It’s not to say that the result of the fight going in was a total certainty, but it was pretty clear that Jones as a near -300 favorite was comfortably expected to win. He not only won, but he dominated Vera and did so (once again) in impressive fashion.

Because UFC has so many fighters in the Light Heavyweight division, Jones will have a lot of mid-level opponents to fight in the year ahead and to keep his winning streak going. He’s young, hungry, amazingly talented, and wildly unpredictable in terms of his fight style. His opponents find him very hard to game plan for due to the unbelievable elbows he throws (he and Kenny Florian are great at using the elbows) and the suplexes he brings to the table. Jones is legitimate at 205 pounds and the fans love the guy. He is a threat to anyone in the Light Heavyweight division and will be taken seriously by the top challengers from this point forward.

Which is lot more than what Brandon Vera will be able to say at this point in his fledgling career.