Jon Jones and MMA's 5 Biggest Surprises

Last year Jon Jones had one of the best years in MMA history. Going from prospect to near the top of pound-for-pound rankings is no easy task for anyone to complete in a career; Jones did it in one year.

A nice feature of MMA is that there's always surprises at every turn. Competing with small gloves and an ultra competitive work environment usually creates quite a few twists and turns that fans don't ever see coming.

Jones' year was predicted by fans, but nobody could've imagined all of it happening in a single year. The rest of these shocks that awed fans may have been predicted by some, but they still left us speechless.

Zuffa Buys Pride

Although the Japanese based promotion had long been considered second best by fans in America, the much larger scope of MMA fans felt Pride was a better place for fighters to go and compete.

While rumored for months, the UFC's actual purchase of Pride was a shock to the MMA world. It was one of those things you knew would always happen but were still shocked when the news actually broke.

For years fans had been wanting to see so many dream matches between Pride and UFC fighters, and Zuffa's purchase finally made them possible.

By not only beating their company but buying them out completely (and for a considerably low price), the UFC officially became the unquestionable No. 1 organization in the world—a title they will likely never surrender.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

When UFC 1 occurred, fans were in awe of not seeing a grappling contest; no, they were interested in seeing the standup martial arts. Royce Gracie didn't care what the fans were there to see, because all he was concerned with was showing that Gracie jiu-jitsu was the best martial art form.

With a culture based around the idea of "one punch" to end your opponents night, Gracie's grappling display made fans do a double take. Not only were we not used to seeing fighters fight on the mat for much more than a few seconds of punching that resembled a bar fight, Gracie was making people submit from these weird submission moves.

Not only were fans confused, the fighters were as well. Gracie's domination at UFC 1 set off a revolution in the world of combat sports that eventually would create the term "mixed martial artist."

Fedor Emelianenko's Run of Perfection

Looking at the world of professional sports one can see that running the table and holding a perfect record is incredibly hard.

For nearly 10 years that's exactly what Fedor Emelianenko did. An amazing feat of 27 bouts with only six opponents making it to the judges' scorecards. What made Emelianenko's run truly surprising was the level of competition Emelianenko was defeating.

Fighters with world-class Brazilian jiu-jitsu credentials, some of the best kickboxers in MMA, former UFC champions, and an Olympic level wrestler all fell to "The Last Emperor."

After hitting a rough patch in Strikeforce, Emelianenko could be making another run to end his career, as he's won two-straight bouts.

Matt Serra Defeats Georges St-Pierre in TUF Title Shot

Fans were a little perplexed as to why someone only needed to win a handful of fights on The Ultimate Fighter to be considered for a title shot, but for Matt Serra that didn't matter.

A middle-of-the-road type of career prior to TUF, Serra received a title shot after defeating Pete Spratt, Shonie Carter, and a split-decision victory over Chris Lytle. Not exactly the best resume for a title contender.

Many fans weren't concerned about what Serra had done because they were all thinking what someone like Georges St-Pierre would do to Serra. In only three minutes and 25 seconds Serra would pull off the biggest upset in MMA history.

Jon Jones

Jon Jones ran through much of the competition before destroying Ryan Bader. Fans were clamoring for Jones to face some upper-level talent, but Dana White persisted in bringing along his future star slowly.

Jones not only won the title but made it look incredibly easy along the way. He went from blue-chip prospect to being unbeatable (in some fans' eyes) in only four fights. Perhaps the most impressive part of Jones' successful 2011 campaign was the quality of competition he did it against.

Bader is a former TUF winner, "Shogun" Rua is a former UFC champion and one of the best fighters of all time at 205 pounds, "Rampage Jackson may be one-dimensional but is still a dangerous opponent, and Lyoto Machida was an enigma who few could solve—and Jones took him out in under 10 minutes.