UFC 197 Results: The Real Winners and Losers from Jones vs. Saint Preux
No need to dance around the elephant in the room here. UFC 197 is the event that saw Jon Jones return to the MMA cage.
Not to say there weren't other interesting points on the card—you can never say that when Demetrious Johnson is involved—but Jones' return from extended suspension was the unquestioned draw Saturday night.
Too bad a grudge and title match with light heavyweight champ Daniel Cormier had to be scuttled because of a Cormier injury. Into the breach stepped Ovince Saint Preux, a former University of Tennessee linebacker with a solid but unspectacular record. With Cormier out, the all-important interim light heavyweight title was on the line.
In the co-main event, Johnson defended his flyweight strap against Henry Cejudo, an Olympic gold-medal wrestler. The challenger has enormous physical tools and talents, but it might be too much, too soon against perhaps the best MMA fighter in the sport today.
There was plenty of intrigue up and down the 12-fight card. Did you miss the Fight Pass or Fox Sports 1 portions of the program? As always, the final stat lines only reveal so much. These are the real winners and losers of UFC 197.
For the literal-minded among us, full results are available on the final slide.
Winner: Jon Jones
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He was a little rusty, but he got the job done.
Jones seemed sluggish. His timing was off. Even so, he did more than enough to thoroughly control Saint Preux and cruise to a unanimous-decision win.
When it really mattered, Jones went to his best phase: the clinch. He was able to score takedowns and easily secured mount from there. Those famous elbows showed themselves once or twice.
In the final moments of the fifth and final round, Jones scooped up OSP and slammed him hard to the mat. The heavy landing wasn't the first time OSP turtled up and looked like he no longer wanted to be in there.
Jones was happy to take the easy win, even as he recognized the shortcomings.
"I was watching tonight instead of reacting," Jones told broadcaster Joe Rogan in the cage after the fight. "Physically, I felt amazing. I could go two more rounds right now. But mentally, I was going 'I'm sucking.'"
If his version of "sucking" is easily beating a top-10 fighter to capture a UFC belt—even if it was the interim version—that's pretty good.
Up next: Nothing is official, but it has to be current lineal belt holder Daniel Cormier, who just happened to be offering analysis (oddly?) as part of the broadcast team.
After the fight, Cormier told Rogan that "watching [Jones] compete tonight in the way that he competed, you can't help but feel there was a missed opportunity. ... You fight that way against me, you're not beating me."
At the same time, you have to think Jones would've found a different gear if that had been Cormier across the cage instead of Saint Preux. There's no question Jones should, can and probably will be better when the undisputed title's on the table.
Loser: Ovince Saint Preux
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It wasn't a terrible performance from Ovince Saint Preux. He lasted far longer than some people thought he would.
Still, though, let's not try to spin straw into gold here: The closeness of the fight relative to expectations was because of Jones' rustiness, not anything Saint Preux did.
Because he didn't do anything. Hence the confidence there. Saint Preux stood nearly motionless for extended stretches. He didn't throw combos. His overall output was low. He tired down the stretch. He didn't even pretend like he was going to shoot for takedowns.
So for as much as he didn't make a major mistake, he didn't rise to the occasion, either. And he could've, against an opponent who was not at his best.
What's next for Saint Preux? After cashing the checks, one has to imagine he'll fall back to the middle of the light heavyweight pack.
Winner: Demetrious Johnson
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"That's natural, organic fighting right there. I'm the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world."
Those were Demetrious Johnson's words to Rogan in the cage after the fight. Who's going to argue with him?
Put another way, one champion was a touch underwhelming at UFC 197, and it wasn't Mighty Mouse Johnson.
Henry Cejudo is 29 years old and still fairly new to MMA. He might not have been ready for Johnson just yet, but still: The guy is a freakin' gold medalist. He was 10-0 coming in into this fight. He's not nobody.
Johnson just made him look that way Saturday night.
In two minutes and 49 brilliant seconds, Mighty Mouse showed once again why he is probably the best overall fighter on planet Earth right now.
Johnson shook off an early takedown and pushed Cejudo against the chain link. A series of seeing-eye knees from the clinch took a toll, punctuated by a final shot that went right across the bridge of the challenger's nose.
Cejudo staggered back. Johnson pursued and locked on a thai plum, using it to expertly control Cejudo's body. A knee to the midsection sent the breath out of Cejudo with a whoosh. It was over soon after.
The performance was efficient and exciting. And with three finishes in his last four contests, maybe Johnson finally shed that "boring" label.
In any case, he certainly has a few good labels on his resume for counterweighting. The great Johnson, the only flyweight champ in UFC history, doesn't look ready to slow down any time soon. Combined with Jones' relatively lackluster performance, it looks like the little guy just claimed the highest throne.
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Loser: Cody East
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When the UFC signed Cody East, people were concerned.
Maybe they shouldn't have been.
In February, the UFC signed East after UFC President Dana White scouted the heavyweight on his Web series, Lookin' for a Fight. Long considered a top prospect in his division, some shied away from East because of his criminal past, which included a three-year prison stint for a child abuse conviction stemming from an underage drinking party.
Despite the rap sheet, the UFC moved forward with the signing after its independent investigation concluded he was reformed, or no longer a threat, or whatever.
It was all rendered moot Saturday when Walt Harris knocked him out. A vicious straight left did the job after a fun slugfest. Some go-for-broke swings as East lay on his back sealed the deal inside the first round.
It was Harris' first win under the UFC banner. "I've been making this conversation between you and me in the mirror for years," Harris told Rogan in the cage after the fight.
Now there's a likable guy. Hats off to Harris for the big win.
Winner: Yair Rodriguez
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Call it The $50,000 Kick.
When Yair Rodriguez landed that jumping roundhouse flush across the side of Andre Fili's face, well, there was no doubt.
No doubt Fili was out before he hit the mat.
No doubt it would earn Rodriguez a $50,000 performance bonus from the UFC.
And no doubt about his status as a fighter to watch at featherweight.
Rodriguez is a high-octane fighter, throwing what the kids like to call the spinning stuff with abandon. But there's substance alongside the style. He fired off some wild kicks in there but also landed a takedown and fared well inside Fili's guard when the action hit the ground.
The Mexican wunderkind is now 7-1—including a perfect 4-0 in the UFC—at the ripe old age of 23. Here's guessing there are one or two more.
Loser: The Clint Hester Light Heavyweight Experiment
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Not what you're looking for if you're a Clint Hester fan.
Once considered an up-and-coming knockout artist, Hester dropped two straight as a middleweight and was searching for answers. The answer that came was a move up to 205 pounds.
This was his debut in that division. It came against Marcos Rogerio de Lima. There is nothing light about this light heavyweight. The relatively rangy Hester, by comparison, didn't look markedly bigger than he did as a middleweight.
De Lima hammered Hester with leg kicks. When Hester charged forward, De Lima put him on the ground with a counter and jumped on top. Hester had no answer. In fact, he didn't seem to land a strike. Not one. De Lima's tap-inducing triangle choke was almost superfluous to the extended beating that preceded it—just a convenient way out for a beaten fighter.
When you're a converted boxer with seven MMA wins by knockout, such a loss is bad. Very bad. Hester still has promise and an 11-6 MMA record at the age of 29, but he may need to win a few on the smaller circuits before he gets another shot in a big show like the UFC.
Winner: Dominique Steele
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After UFC 197, you may know Dominique Steele better by his nickname: Non-Stop, Action-Packed Dom T. Steele.
The Steele alter ego lived up to his moniker and more in a grueling three-round war with British prospect Danny "Hot Chocolate" Roberts on the Fox Sports 1 undercard.
It was a back-and-forth battle, with Steele controlling much of the fight with wrestling and Roberts getting the better of the stand-up exchanges.
Ultimately, the judges gave a unanimous decision to Roberts, and while opinions went both ways, comedian and MMA fan Adam Hunter summed up a lot of feelings when he tweeted that "Benson Henderson going to Bellator was a better decision."
Ouch.
Regardless of how you felt about the final scorecard, credit Non-Stop, Action-Packed for being one-half of one of the evening's best fights.
UFC 197 Full Card Results
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Main Card
- Jon Jones def. Ovince Saint Preux by unanimous decision
- Demetrious Johnson def. Henry Cejudo by TKO, 2:49, Rd. 1
- Edson Barboza def. Anthony Pettis by unanimous decision
- Robert Whittaker def. Rafael Natal by unanimous decision
- Yair Rodriguez def. Andre Fili by KO, 2:15, Rd. 2
Preliminary Card
- Sergio Pettis def. Chris Kelades by unanimous decision
- Danny Roberts def. Dominique Steele by unanimous decision
- Carla Esparza def. Juliana Lima by unanimous decision
- James Vick def. Glaico Franca by unanimous decision
- Walt Harris def. Cody East by TKO, 4:18, Rd. 1
- Marcos Rogerio de Lima def. Clint Hester by submission (arm-triangle choke), 4:35, Rd. 1
- Kevin Lee def. Efrain Escudero by unanimous decision
Scott Harris writes about MMA for Bleacher Report. For more stuff like this, follow Scott on Twitter.
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