UFC 145 Results: Jon Jones Defeats Rashad Evans to Retain Championship

After a fairly intense lead-up to their UFC light heavyweight championship bout at UFC 145, Jon "Bones" Jones and "Suga" Rashad Evans locked horns on Saturday night. Although Evans had high hopes of knocking off one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, it was Jones who came out on top in a unanimous decision victory.

The 24-year-old champion entered the fight with a 15-1 career record, with his only loss coming via disqualification versus Matt Hamill in 2009. Jones was absolutely dominating that match and likely would have gone on to win that fight, though, so he is still considered by many as an undefeated fighter. And that is still the case after his victory over Evans.

With the loss, Evans' career record drops to 17-2-1. Evans had gone on an impressive winning streak since his loss to Lyoto Machida three years ago, but he simply couldn't overcome the pure talent of Jones. Jones has now won seven consecutive bouts, and almost all of them have been against elite competition like Evans, Machida, Quinton Jackson and Mauricio Rua.

At this point, it's difficult to say where either fighter will go. Jones has essentially beaten all of the top challengers in the division, so he may have to resort to fighting a clearly inferior opponent, or perhaps engaging in a rematch of some kind.

As for Evans, Jones was viewed as his biggest competition, so now he'll have to take a step down. One possibility is a rematch with Machida in order to avenge his only other loss. But aside from that Evans is sort of stuck in the middle right now.

There is no question that Jones needs a challenge of some sort, but there doesn't appear to be one out there. Being the best fighter in the world comes with its benefits as Jones is now the face of UFC, but he'll also have to battle boredom moving forward if nobody steps up to take him on.