UFC 123 Results: Is Phil Davis a Better Prospect Than Jon Jones?

Jon "Bones" Jones isn't the only impressive light heavyweight in the UFC's 205-pound division.

If anyone needed proof that the Greg Jackson standout wasn't the only solid young prospect—besides Ryan Bader—that was making waves in the UFC's 205-pound division, they got their proof in the form of the Phil Davis-Tim Boetsch fight.

Davis showed some toughness, a slight improvement in his striking and the explosiveness in his takedown execution, which people tend to note, but he showed something else Saturday night.

The man may be four fights short of Jon Jones' 11-1 record, but the now 8-0 Davis has proven himself to be just as promising of a prospect as the Greg Jackson phenom.

That being said, Mr. Wonderful's previous 3-0 record of wins—wins that have come at the expense of Brian Stann (by way of the judges' scorecards), Alexander Gustafsson (by way of an Anaconda Choke) and Rodney Wallace (also by way of the judges' scorecards)—were all precursors to the type of career-defining performance that Davis delivered on Saturday.

In the second round, Davis was able to get the larger Boetsch on the ground with a takedown and sink in a specially-improvised version of the Kimura on The Barbarian.

What had happened was Davis went for the standard-issue Kimura on Boetsch, but sometime between the eventually-sunk-in "Mr. Wonderful" and the regular Kimura, Davis felt that Boetsch wasn't about to tap from the regular version of the hold.

So what did he do?

He folds the arm behind Boetsch's back, akin to how you''d see the arm in a hammerlock, puts his left bicep across the neck, grips the wrist and cranks it the same way he would've if he had gotten the regular Kimura.

We all know what happened from there.

So with the win over the 5150 Combat League's current light heavyweight champion, is Mr. Wonderful a better prospect than the 11-1 Jones?

It depends on how you look at it.

On one hand, Davis is four fights short of Jones, and hasn't shown much in the way of a solidified striking game, let alone a highlight-reel knockout, in either of his past four fights.

That, plus Davis has already proven to be an explosive wrestling machine who can take down even the heaviest light heavyweight—as he proved this past Saturday—yet he's recently been a slow starter and therefore unable to show us what he can do when he finds his range.

On the other hand, his skill set is improving to where, with time and a few more impressive wins in succession, we can make an argument that perhaps Davis is better as a prospect than Jones is.

We can't say that yet because unlike Jones, we haven't seen how Davis responds to the sharks in the deeper waters of the light heavyweight division.

Jones has proven his worth against the likes of Stephan Bonnar, Brandon Vera, Jake O'Brien, Matt Hamill—to the point of even Dana White disputing the call to DQ Jones for the elbows rather than call a TKO win for Jones due to the shoulder injury Hamill sustained—and of course former UFC light heavyweight title contender Vladimir Matyushenko.

Now you know you're something special when you're the young guy everyone makes a big deal about, and yet you're the underdog going up against a VETERAN of the sport.

Boestch was a huge win because of the manner in which Davis won, but as far as opponents on Mr. Wonderful's record go, his only big win thus far was the UFC 109 debut win over Stann, who the WEC's second-to-last light heavyweight champion.

I've gone balls out in choosing who I think Davis should get at before we talk Jones vs. Davis to see which fighter is the better fighter, but what about the "better prospect" question?

Is Phil Davis at the point where he's finally a better all-around prospect than even Jonny "Bones" Jones?

He's not there yet, but mark my words, Mr. Wonderful will get to that point before 2012 dawns upon us.