Hot Tweets: Jon Jones' strategy at UFC 239, shocking knockouts and the best fighter nobody talks about



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Many things have happened since our last conversation. Jorge Masvidal broke a UFC record, Jon Jones lost a fight (but kept his belt) and Luke Rockhold's career stopped – basically. Let's talk about all this and more.


Since Saturday, I've spent a lot of time thinking about this one and I think there are a number of factors at play here, but I think the most important is that Jones has presented a terrible game plan and that Thiago Santos presented a more difficult style. matchup than expected.

The sneaky reality is that Jones has never been so good at kickboxing. He's doing well because of his athleticism and his absurd physical benefits, but he's not going to really distinguish you outside with combinations. Jones is an indoor fighter and he was especially happy not to enter Santos because he feared that the hay producers would come back to him. That said, there is not really a good excuse for which Jones did not seek to force the hitters or put them to work, and it is quite inexcusable that he is fighting with a one-legged man and refuses to open offensively.

Honestly, it seems to me that Jones has reached the Georges St-Pierre stadium of his career. If he wanted to, he could press the question and murder everyone. But instead, he's too cautious to put himself in danger, so he's going to make boring decisions unless someone really wants it, by opening big counters (at Daniel Cormier's). The irony of this style is that it is actually a lot more dangerous because the longer you stay in the cage, the more likely you will be upset. After all, Jones nearly lost his title last weekend. I hope that all his post-fight talk about thinking that he fought well was just blowing smoke, because otherwise he would eventually lose it as soon as possible.


This is certainly not the most shocking finish in history, although it may be the coolest. You're right, no one was expecting Masvidal to get a knee knockout of five seconds – can you imagine the chances of success ?! – but it's quite possible to believe it. You know what is impossible to believe? This Gabriel Gonzaga, a world-class BJJ player, knocked Mirko off Cro Cop with a header. It's been more than 10 years and I still can not believe it really happened. If you were not an MMA fan at the time of pride pride, it might be difficult to explain how crazy it was, but trust me , it was crazy. Of course, Cro Cop had seemed less impressive in his debut at UFC, but he was a guy who broke all records. If Gonzaga would win, it would be with a job on the ground. Then, down and here, "Napao" put himself at the head of Cro Cop. It's as if Conor McGregor was standing up and admitting that Khabib was a better fighter than him – it's inconceivable.

After that, Matt Serra's GSP performances are probably the seconds online, especially given the suspicious way Serra got the title, "beating" Chris Lytle on a TUF season.

Then I have to go with Weidman and Anderson and Jose Aldo being fooled by Conor. The latter will be controversial considering the status of artist to a punch of Conor, but in reality, he is not really a coward. I would have thought that Conor would win, but not that he would have won the biggest fighter in the history of MMA in 13 seconds.


I do not think the word overpowering is exactly the right word, but yes, I think Usman probably wins. I have been a big fan of Masvidal for ages, but despite his recent descent, this man still has limits. I thought Askren would probably be able to take advantage of these limitations, but Jorge slammed it after five seconds. If they fought this fight 100 times, I imagine Askren wins the fight with his fight most of the time. Likewise, I think Usman would crush Masvidal in five rounds.

It's an interesting thought. Masvidal is one of the most underrated fighters for a year, but honestly, Usman is underrated at the present time. I know it's hard to underestimate a current champion, but seriously, Usman's progression has been incredible. Just check out his FightMetric stats. For a year and a half, Usman has taken a step and it is only rolling people aggressively and quickly. Masvidal is sufficiently complete and clever to hold on, but Usman will eventually get away under his avalanche of pressure.

Jorge 100% deserves the next shot. Unless Colby Covington beats Robbie Lawler. So who the hell knows?


Easily the flyweight list. It's like an assumption about the number of 10-year-olds that you could eliminate before being overwhelmed by their numbers, but only instead of 10-year-olds is a world-class fighter. Now granted, the UFC has cut so much flying weight that it has hardly a division, but more than 10 guys are still enough to do it.

Have you ever tried to fight more than one person at a time? Well, I must say that it went wrong would be an understatement. It's something that the movies gave us a completely wrong idea. Francis Ngannou could perhaps take a life or two before the numbers overwhelm him, but the weight-flyers are certainly winners.


There are two ways to interpret this, but I will take it for granted and say the absolute best fighter that is completely absent from the conversation right now: Ketlen Vieira. Vieira bombed the bantamweight division of the UFC, becoming the number two competitor in just 18 months. She's 10-0 and should be the next obvious choice for Amanda Nunes to defend – and while it's hard to pick against Amanda at this point, Vieira is at least a valuable challenger. Instead, Vieira has a knee injury and has completely disappeared from the radar ever since. Be honest, did you remember her until you checked the rankings and saw that I was telling the truth? Exactly.


ICYMI, Aspen Ladd seemed like she was really going to die on the scale yesterday.

I do not like talking to you about it, but even if someone dies, it will not change anything. The only way to change what is happening is a complete culture shift around the benefits of weight reduction, and this will never happen. At this point, there is more than enough evidence to suggest that reducing weight by 10 pounds is not a huge benefit and that it actually has many disadvantages. But people continue to kill themselves on the scale because they think it's the best decision. And honestly, it suits me.

The UFC and the commissions should definitely devote more time to presenting the fighters with the disadvantages and dangers of losing weight, but in the end, there are not many profitable ways of doing it. ;prevent. The massive invasion of privacy by USADA is already serious enough without adding weight registration and any type of weight limit during the combat night simply increases the likelihood of injury because fighters will only succumb to the limit . For me, the best solution is to weigh 48 hours before the event. This is not going to radically change the way fighters gain weight and this gives them a realistic time to rehydrate completely instead of sinking half-collapsed before undergoing head trauma.

Listen, I think the aggressive weight reduction in MMA is incredibly stupid, but people have the right to be stupid and they literally hurt themselves. Will it be a tragedy when someone eventually dies? Absolutely. But you can not force the horse to drink the water to which you have driven it.


For those who do not know, Kyle Snyder is one of the greatest American wrestlers of all time and one of the best pound-to-pound wrestlers in the world. He is the reigning Olympic gold medalist in the heavyweights. Oh, and he's only 23 years old.

Considering how much he is a wrestler, that his style would translate into MMA and the horror show of the UFC heavyweight division, I would say that even money that Snyder could enter the cage tomorrow and beat at least one ranked guy. Assuming he could take a punch, if you gave Snyder five years in a legitimate gym, this guy could easily win the title.

It is in the hope that his freestyle career will be over, he will follow the footsteps of Daniel Cormier.


ICYMI, Luke Rockhold still had and Dana thinks that he should hang up.

I seriously, seriously doubt it. First, we must recognize what the Hall of Fame is and what it is not. What is an honor determined by the company. There is no meritorious panel that decides who has access to the vote or an obscure voting procedure – they simply make a decision and follow it. It's not a champions room.

Let's be clear: at least four fighters currently registered in the room should not be – not because they do not deserve it, but because others should have been first. That number goes up to six if it's really a UFC Hall of Fame and not an MMA Hall of Fame, because if it's an MMA Hall of Fame, what a pleasure!

So, having seen that, let's look at Rockhold. He is a champion who has done practically nothing to elevate the sport. A sensational fighter, of course, but people do not follow in Rockhold's footsteps and he did not leave any great records to run after. In fact, given the evolution of his career in recent times, the lasting image of Rockhold in the minds of all UFC supporters will be that of being fooled by Michael Bisping. On top of that, Rockhold has been a notoriously difficult fighter with which to work. It's actually a compliment. He knows his value and has always fought to get him paid by the UFC. But this kind of thing does not generate goodwill with the organization. Frankly, I'm half surprised that Tito has arrived in the room.

At the end of a late career, the chances of Rockhold's Hall are slim. And I just can not see it now. I thought the move to 205 might reinvigorate his career, but it turns out that the impossibility of blocking the left hook is not a problem that can not be solved by not reducing the weight . Who knew?


Thank you for reading this week and thank you to everyone who sent tweets! Do you have burning questions about at least tacitly fighting sports? So you're lucky because you can send me your Hot Tweets, @JedKMeshew and I will answer it! It does not matter whether they are topical or foolish. Become weird with that. Let's have fun.

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