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Jon Jones & The Light Heavyweights

Jon Jones has recently made it clear at the post fight press conference of UFC 182 that he doesn’t have plans to move up to Heavyweight anytime soon. It seems likely that at the very least he wants to beat Anderson Silva’s record for most title defenses first, Anderson has 10 and Jones is currently sitting at 8, so simple math would tell us he needs 2 more to tie it and 3 more to beat it (assuming of course that Silva doesn’t get his title back, and add on to his total again.) Lets take a look at the division behind Jon ‘Bones’ Jones and see who he has to beat to get himself there.

Alexander Gustafsson just lost to Anthony Johnson on Saturday, or perhaps more accurately described Johnson strolled into Gustafsson’s house, stalked him into a corner, beat him up like one of his ex-girlfriends (allegedly) and stole his title shot, regardless of how you want to portray it we now know that Jon Jones is going to be facing Rumble in his 9th title defence. Looking over the Light Heavyweight division, however, you don’t see a lot of other challenges out there for Jones, the top 5 of the division are Anthony Johnson (who he is fighting,) Daniel Cormier (who he just beat,) Alexander Gustafsson (who just lost, and has lost to Jones himself,) Rashad Evans (who also lost to the Champion,) and Ryan Bader (who lost to the Champ before he was even the Champ.) So it would seem that Jones is probably going to have to except that if he makes it through Rumble his record tying title defence will be a rematch (and in all likelyhood his record breaking one as well).

Rashad Evans is on 3 fight win streak and Ryan Bader is on a 4 fight win streak, matching the 2 of them up for a title eliminator somehow makes the most sense, it also all but ensures Jones vs. Evans II being his record tying title defence, (no offence to Ryan Bader) this has the potential to be a huge fight. Until UFC 182 did big PPV numbers, UFC 145: Jones vs. Evans was Jon Jones biggest fight with over 700,000 buys, also UFC 92 the fight where Rashad Evans won the Light Heavyweight title from Forest Griffin broke the now seemingly impossible 1 million buys threshold. Now the rivalry between Rashad and Jones isn’t there anymore, although nothing is stopping the UFC using the footage that exists from when it did, but he will have just beat Suga’s friend and training partner Rumble, add it being Jones’ record tying 10th title defence and you could be looking at the biggest PPV Jon Jones has ever headlined, especially if the UFC puts it on the New Years card and stacks it.

The only other compelling fights for Jones seem to be the rematches between DC and Gus. Some people would say with them both coming off a loss having them face each other now is a no brainer, but I disagree I feel they should meet after they both get back to their winning ways. I would have the two of them face off against a couple of interesting challengers that Jones hasn’t faced before but who I wouldn’t lose too much sleep over knocking out of contention since they are most likely going to lose. My choices would be to put Daniel Cormier against Phil Davis and Alexander Gustafsson against Ovince Saint Preux (yes two guys that have most recently somehow lost to Ryan Bader...no offence) For Phil Davis this would be his last chance to prove he can hang with the elite and put his money where his mouth is about being the best grappler in the division, for OSP it would be his chance to prove the loss to Ryan Bader was just a wee stumble and his true talent was shown by his previous 5 fight win streak and most recent win over Mauricio Rua. Of course the most likely outcome is that Cormier and Gustafsson win and then they can fight each other in a title eliminator for the chance to face Jon Jones in his record breaking 11th title defence.

That would take Jones past Silva’s record, at which point he may move up to Heavyweight, but is there away to setup some new challenges for him? Shogun and Glover are the only guys in the Top 10 without a fight, I don’t think anyone is clamouring to see their rematches with Jones but I see no reason to not match them up, they are both coming off back to back loses and it would make for a good headliner for Brazilian Fox Sports 1 Card. We also have Jimi Manuwa vs. Jan Blachowicz already scheduled for April, both guys could be legitimate contenders. Manuwa’s only loss has come at the hands of Alexander Gustafsson which only proves one of the top Light Heavyweights in the world beat him one time. Blachowicz is riding a 6 fight win streak and is 15-1 in his last 16. I could see whoever wins that fight getting the winner of Glover vs. Shogun and a chance to put themselves solidly into the middle of the top 10. As a back up to that, if neither Manuwa or Blachowicz is impressive we have Rampage Jackson vs. Fabio Maldonado also scheduled for April. Rampage is unlikely to get a rematch with Glover just yet, and is miles away from rematching Jones, but a rematch with Shogun makes a lot of sense even if they both of lose, but does very little for the title picture. If Maldonado wins on the other hand he’s earned a chance at the top 10 since he’d be on a 5 fight win streak at Light Heavyweight (with a loss at Heavyweight tossed in the middle of it) it’s unlikely he could even come close to beating Jon Jones but he would be a fresh body to throw in front of him if he gets a couple of Top 10 wins.

Rounding out the people that you should really care about currently in the Light Heavyweight division is everyone’s favourite ex-barista, Patrick Cummings. It might seem silly since the only time anyone was really paying close attention to one of his fights he lost pretty handily to Daniel Cormier, albeit on short notice and did I mention it was to Daniel Cormier. Since then he’s managed to win 3 straight fights pretty easily, I don’t think he’s ready for the Top 10 he does need to improve, his wrestling is top notch but he doesn’t yet have a good way to finish people once he gets them down. I do think, however, it is time to give him another fight against someone people know, this time I would make it an aging legend at the end of his career. With that in mind there is really only one choice hanging around the Light Heavyweight division and that’s Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. Little Nog has pretty strong boxing skills that will test Cummings, good take down defence and good BJJ should Cummings get him on the mat, which he likely will. It’s a winnable fight for Cummings but by no means a sure thing as he could be dominated on the feet, but if he does win it’s the type of fight that could propel him towards the Top 10.

That’s how I see the Light Heavyweight Division currently, agree or disagree I’d love to hear your guys thoughts.

P.S. No offense Ryan Bader you’re a cool hardworking cat.

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