Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire UFC 135...

I think if Evans tried to take down Jones, it would end up being a long, painful night for him. Jones has such a huge reach advantage over Evans that he could do the same thing he did to Rampage and punch and kick from outside. Evans has to close that distance aggressively to be able to take him down. And if he did, I think Jones would just sprawl and make Evans work his butt off. And to effectively kick Jones, Evans has to take the chance of Jones grabbing his leg and taking Evans down. Evan's best chance is the same as Rampage. Somehow close the distance, keep from getting throw to the mat or kneed to death, and land a devastating punch to Jones face. Rampage is one of the best, close in, in the pocket punchers out there, and he couldn't make it happen. Maybe Evans could pull it off. There's always a punchers chance in any UFC fight. There's bad blood between those two guys. I think the only advantage Evans could potentially gain is to get into Jone's head pre-fight and somehow take him off his game psychologically. Jone's is one of the coolest headed guys in the sport. If he took that away from him, maybe he would make more mistakes and get caught. But I doubt it.

Brian, Thank you for the analysis.
Pete

Sat 15 feet from the cage last night, I'll post pics a little later today. Jones is a stud but he's not unbeatable. I was really disappointed in Rampages game plan, you can't just stand in front of Jones and get picked apart like that and Rampage was, and really always has been, horrible in the clinch.

I think that Jones will be tested in his next 2 fights and we'll get to see how he handles being pressured. I'm not taking anything away from him, he's a freak but I'm just not willing to say that he's unbeatable. I think the sky is the limit for him and he is only going to get better, he's scary good for as young as he is!

I've heard a lot of stories about Rashad and Jones in the gym, and they all revolved around Rashad being able to bully Jones and put him on his back on a regular basis. Rashad isn't afraid of Jones whatsoever, and isn't going to be standing there in awe like Rampage was last night. Rashad is going to come right after him and try to put Jones on the defensive.

You've got to favor Jones in that fight, but it's not going to be easy for him and Rashad could definetly win.

Brian.

My pleasure Pete.

Brian.

No one in MMA is unbeatable. But your last comment is the big one for me. I watched a repeat of Jone's UFC debut fight a few nights ago, and he has made a scary amount of improvement since then. And he will grow in every fight he takes on. I guarantee we see the best Jones we've seen yet against Evans. There's no doubt in my mind that his camp will train very hard to negate any advantages Evans may have had over him before too. I think Evans is a more well rounded fighter than Rampage but I think Jones still takes the fight.

While I agree with you for the most part, I think the whole "oh he's only 24, he's just going to get better and better" is being played up a bit too much. Will he get better by spending more time in the cage and gaining that experience? Absolutley, 100%. But that does not mean his technique is going to get any better. This is why I was worried when Jones started training at Jackson's a couple of years ago when Jones only had only been fighting as a pro for about a year. Gregg Jackson and Mike Winklejohn don't try to change a fighter's style whatsoever - they just try to make them better at what they already do. Now that's fine if you're a GSP and you join the camp after having tons of experience in fights and already have an established style, but that's bad news if you're just developing as a fighter. Instead of trying to get Jones to learn proper striking techniques, they just go "that crazy stuff is great Jon, let's focus on that!" So you end up with a guy with a massive reach but can't really offensively box properly and instead of trying to finish a fight with effective strikes prefers to try spinning back elbows and front push kicks to the knee. They're never going to teach him in a way that benefits his physical skills. For crying out loud, they trained Keith Jardine for 10 years and never taught him how to defend a left hook. They trained Rashad for years and ignored his positively dreadful foot work, which Rashad didn't get to work on until he started training with Grudge in Colorado.

Jones has come a long way with what he has, but what's going to happen when he can't fall back on his reach? At some point you're going to run into a guy who isn't afraid to close the distance on you and fight in the pocket, and what then? What if he fights another tall lanky guy with a similar reach to his own? If you don't have really good fundamentals to fall back on, you're screwed.



One of the stories I have heard more than a few times about Rashad and Jones training together was an instance where Rashad took Jones down, and Jones simply couldn't get back up to save his life. He asked Rashad to let him up, and Rashad said no - he needed to learn to be able to get back to his feet on his own and not rely on getting stood up by the ref. Jones couldn't get up and Rashad was on top of him for something close to an hour before the training session ended.

Now, is Jones going to be training to defend shots and to scramble back to his feet? Of course. But what great wrestlers does he have to work with? GSP isn't going to train with him as he's boys with Rashad, and the only other wrestlers at Jackson's are lightweights. Meanwhile, Rashad is going to be working with Dan Cormier, Mo Lawal and probably even Phil Davis - three world class wrestlers.

I think Jones' offensive firepower will be too much for Rashad, but nobody should be shocked if Rashad just takes Jones down and beats him up. That fight is going to be incredibly competitive and we'll see how Jones handles being in a back and forth fight for the first time.

Brian.

Man, was I wrong about that in every aspect or what?

Brian.

That's what's fun about this stuff. We can all speculate on what we think and see how it plays out. And we get to see some butt kicking to boot.

Well, I legitmately thought Browne was a talented prospect. Instead, he's a guy who throws some of the sloppiest punches I've ever seen and has no clue what to do on the ground. How many times did he get full mount on Broughton and then just sort of sit there and look confused?

Brian.

You sure called the Hugh's fight.

Here is some video I took from my seat last night. I labeled the video "Cute Kittens 2" so it wasnt flagged for removal. This is Matt Hughes talking with Joe Rogan...



Here is Jonny Bones Jones walking in...



I'll get some pictures up later

Rampage entering the cage...


My girlfriend with Bobby Lashley behind her, I sat next to Bobby Lashley for 3 fights and he's a BIG dude!



Steven Seagal was sitting in front of us with Fez from That 70's Show. Here is is with Dana White...



And here he is with Dan. I asked Dan if Seagal taught him anything in their 30 second conversation but he didnt. I guess Steven Seagal gets paid for that kind of info

Seeing Matt Hughes almost break down into tears while Rogan was interviewing him was hard to watch.

BTW, I'm pretty sure they showed you on the PPV broadcast, because I know they showed Fez in the audience at one point.

Man, don't you just love that condescending look Segal is giving Dan? Did you hear that Segal called Jones up before this fight and wanted to meet him to give him some pointers, and Jones politely told him to get lost? Classic. Then after the fights, Segal says that Jones didn't look all that great and he was actually more impressed with Rampage's head movement more than anything, and then claimed his opinion was worth more than Joe Rogan's because he is a "real fighter". That's pretty funny considering that Rogan was a US National TKD champion and Segal never even competed.



From now on, just post pictures of your girlfriend. Nobody wants to look at Bobby Lashley.

Brian.

Brian, I cannot believe you have doubts about Segal's greatness!! You need to watch his movies! Why, he can send people flying with a flick of the wrist. Best of all, he can out run the rate of detonation of many explosives. Segal is really pretty full of himself.
Pete

Rampage vs Segal? Who you pick?

Rampage via staredown

Segal tried to get in a real fight with Gene Labell back in the early 1990's. Segal was maybe 30, Judo Gene was well over 60. Segal ended up waking up in a tool shed and needing to change his underwear.

I'd have paid anything to have been a fly on the wall for that one.

Brian.

Rampage by first degree murder.

Brian.

Some great Monday morning laughs right there.