wow...

there were some fair and legit questions about how he'd fare once he faced some "real" competition and i guess we have our answer. he ripped through shogun just as easily as he has everyone else.

i know we've said it about guys before, but who's going to beat this guy? he's as big as forrest, strong as rampage, quick as rashad and has a killer instinct like wandy. and oh yeah, he's coached by greg jackson. and he's just 23.

i seriously don't think anybody at 205 stands much of a chance with him right now. i'd give machida an outside chance (though still a longshot), just because he's so unorthodox.

and how long until people want to see anderson move up to fight him?

I discussed this on another thread/board. I expected Jones to win, but not in such easy fashion. IMO, I don’t think anyone at 205 touches him for a long time, barring injury or unless we find out he has no chin. Since no one has really landed a shot we can only speculate. I think Machida gets mowed down…nothing about that guy seems overly impressive to me.

I didn’t get to see the PPV. Did they say what Jones weighed in come fight time? I know he was 217 for the Hamil fight and around 226 for the Matyushenko fight. Honestly that isn’t that out of the ordinary for most LHWs. Did they say he was even bigger for this fight?

I’d be interested in seeing a fight with Spider. Even being a giant at 185 he’d be at a physical disadvantage at just about every level facing Jones at 205. He’d have a punchers chance but would probably get taken down with ease and beaten severly.

i didn't hear what he weighed in at, but he didn't look appreciably bigger than he did against hammill. plus that was just 6 weeks ago, so i'd bet he was something close to that.

i'd rather see silva/GSP than silva/jones.

and if cain dominates the HW division like i think he might, we could have a period of time with not many title changes.

Blue star for bones jones. His performance was amazing! Shogun looked slow and had tons of trouble with his reach disadvantage. Rashad will not be the guy to take Jones out. He's a small LH and doesn't have a good enough ground game to negate Jones' wrestling. Jones by (t)ko in that fight. I dont think Machida really offers anything that will trouble jones. Maybe Phil Davis will be the guy to do it in two years.

Its unfortunate that Shogun has a steel chin and is probably a more technical fighter than Jones and Jones still beat the piss out of him. I expected it, but I had hoped that Shogun would have dealt with the size a little better. Machida would probably get beat worse by Jones than he did by Shogun just because of the size, but anyone has a punchers chance.

Shogun look slower than normal. That really hurt him when Jones' reach is ridiculous.

Unfortunately, a slow Shogun has been the norm in the UFC because he’s injured his damn knee so many times. A lot of people forget he has fought 6 times in about 4 years since coming over from Pride…all due to knee surgeries and a lot of rehab. His last fight against Machida he was injury-free and in really good shape…very vascular and virtually no flab. http://mmavalor.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/ShogunRua.jpg

That said, I still don’t think it would have mattered against Jones. Getting your head beaten in will slow anyone down after a few minutes.

vascular?

i meant he looked in shape. ripped, whatever you want to call it. yeah, probably not the best choice of words.

So who will shogun face next and how do think Jones/Rashad will play out?

Typically a losing champ will fight an up & coming second-tier guy or a big name guy that is a little past his prime. Liddell fought Jardine, Jackson fought Wandy, Rashad fought Thiago Silva, Machida will fight Couture next. So I would imagine if Phil Davis wins maybe he faces Shogun. I could also see Dana trying for some sort of “hype but no real meaning fight” like Shogun versus Forest, part 2. Maybe if they can find a way to contract Mousasi he could come over…I’m just guessing at this point. Regardless, in the past week the 205 division now looks like 185 and 170. There is the champ and a huge gap between everyone else.

And I think Jones absolutely rolls through Rashad. Only thing Rashad really has to match Jones is athleticism and obviously an edge in experience. Rashad is really on the small side for 205, giving up a foot in reach, and probably 5 inches in height. His striking is worse. The only possible way I see him snatching a victory is maybe he can surprise Jones and get him on his back, but that would have to come from a straight double leg shoot in. I don’t see how he could clinch standing up and work him to the ground.

[This message has been edited by mm98 (edited 3/24/2011 1:51p).]

I think Jones out wrestles Rashad to prevent the takedown and punishes him on the feet. I don't see Rashad having much of a chance.

Jones is better than Rashad on the ground and on the feet. Jones by (t)ko in the 1st.

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So I would imagine if Phil Davis wins maybe he faces Shogun.

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i was thinking this could be a real possibility, but after fight night, i'm not so sure.

don't get me wrong, a win over little nog is impressive. but davis still looks very raw to me. he's got all the physical tools to be good and i'd hate to rush him along to quickly.