shogun is the man and will always be a legend but he looked like ****, seriously he was gassed in the second round and was throwing slow telegraphed punches. i hate to see someone like shogun get beat like that especially from someone like jones.
Jones is a beast. I had a feeling he would steamroll Shogun, despite the MMA world saying, "Bones is in way over his head!" He ragdolls people who don't get ragdolled. His ground and pound is brutal. Who else can one punch people from full guard? He dictates where the fight goes with his range and unorthodox takedown abilities. Hell, he suplexed a great wrestler in Ryan Bader and tossed the sturdy Matt Hamill around like a child. Shogun's striking as always been overrated. He needed to catch Bones with a winging right hook (his main power punch) to win. It worked against Machida and a stationery Liddell, but there was no way to close the gap without lunging at the lanky Jones. Without that punch, he had no options. Leg kick him to death? He certainly wasn't going to outwrestle him. Bones is an impressive dude, and I'm glad we have many more prime years left to watch him. Rashad Evans is **** up a creek without a paddle.
Agree with a lot of what you say, but Shoguns striking is not over-rated. There's no easy way for a small fighter to overcome a size difference like that when the opponent is that good at taking advantage of height/ reach, controlling distance, and that good at takedown defense, and takedowns himself. I was expecting Rua to go for leg kicks, you saw what Jones did? He kept changing stances and landing those little short shots to Shoguns knee, so Shogun could never really set to get off. Jones improved his footwork, never had both of his feet very close to one another to even further complicated trying to take him down, or time any sort of leg kicks or lunging shots. We haven't really even seen Jones get nailed yet. The mistakes he make are always being improved upon from fight to fight. Short of him getting Lazy and not staying hungry, I don't really see anyone who can really give him a challenge. We haven't really even seen anyone exploit any of his so called weaknesses, and the technical mistakes he makes are disappearing. He is likely going to be champ for a long time. Hopefully he gets his head in check and goes back to being a gracious, classy guy and stops acting so full of himself. I really like the dynamic style. It's hard to watch MMA go in the min max direction, stretching the limits of weight and size, weight cuts, and age.. But that is the inevitability, and evolution of the sport. Thank God Jones has a fighters spirit and has a will to be entertaining. I love him as a fighter. Hopefully I can start liking him as a person again.
After watching it some of the gifs, it looked like Shogun tapped as the ref was jumping in for the stoppage. That left hook to the body was just brutal.
well that was brutal. i think rashad wont do much better. shogun looked terrible, he was knackered after the first round.
shogun wasn't himself tonite. he gassed out, telegraphed his punches and looked very slow... probably due to the long layoff and post ops condition..
It has more to do with Jones laying on top of him and punching the **** out of Shogun over the entire first round. Gassed him right the **** out!