UFC 214, the Morning After: Brock Lesnar responds to Jon Jones; Dana White says Jones will fight someone else first

Last night, Jon Jones made a successful return, starching perhaps the second-greatest light heavyweight of all time, Daniel Cormier. “DC” did much of what he claimed he was going to do, which was come in emotion-free and just compete. He had clearly taken a lot of lessons from the first fight and looked much improved, scoring evenly with Jones on two of the three judges scorecards (see them) going into the third round. None of that mattered, though. Jones caught him leaning straight into a headkick and followed up with ground-and-pound that erased Cormier’s memory of what happened, left him twitching on the canvas, and turned his hopes and dreams into ugly tears. Jones, objectively, is probably the greatest of all time.

Jon Jones opened the post-fight interview overwhelmed with how much he impressed himself.

“Such a beautiful moment. Man, I did a lot of right things to get back in this position.”

He proceeded to be the Inspiring Jones he has always wanted to be. He was magnanimous to the fallen Cormier; and in truth, Jones owes a huge debt to Cormier. Up until he fought “DC,” he wouldn’t let the “real Jon Jones” into the open. He didn’t want to be hated, and ironically, that kept him from being loved. Cormier, by refusing to accept Jones’ sense of superiority or pay deference to him, brought out what lay underneath the pretensions of politeness: a savage certainty that he, Jon Jones, is better than everyone else. With “DC,” Jones was willing to be an asshole, and as it turns out, that’s all the fans wanted.

Now, the fans seem to want something else. Brock Lesnar vs. Jon Jones is a fight that makes no sense and all the sense at the same time. Jones called out Lesnar in the cage; Lesnar responded, telling the AP simply:

Be careful what you wish for, young man.

Dana White, of course, is on board with that, but clarifies that Lesnar has a six months suspension to finish out first; Jones will have to fight someone else in the meantime.

Will we see Volkan Oezdemir, who knocked out Jimi Manuwa last night, get his shot? Or will we see the rematch that’s been brewing even longer than the Daniel Cormier fight? Alexander Gustafsson is ready and waiting.

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In Other News

• Why?? Why are we doing this again? Who is asking for this fight? Dana White announced last night that because Tyron Woodley fought another boring fight against Demian Maia, Michael Bisping vs. Georges St. Pierre is back on. Why does Dana like throwing his own champions under the bus? At least Woodley has actually defended his belt against the top contenders...
• Lawler-Cowboy was the highlight of the night for me, and you can watch the highlights of that highlight here
• Cris Cyborg fought a measured fight against the game Tonya Evinger, and got the knockout from the clinch in the third round
• I was glad to see Brian Ortega vs. Renato Moicano get Fight of the Night, because it was genuinely awesome

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Sunday Funday

What is McGregor doing? How does this help him prepare for Mayweather? I have so many questions.

Dan Henderson will grapple with Sakuraba at RIZIN FF 7 in October

Tenshin Nasukawa fought last night in RIZIN. Here is what he is capable of.

A little background on Tenshin:

Here is how his fight last night played out:

Tenshin is 18

What the...

Other highlights, in case UFC 214 didn’t satisfy your appetite for violence.

Someone with “oh my god” power

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Enjoy your Sunday, Maniacs!