UFC 128 Fight Card: Shogun Rua Vs. Jon Jones Head to Toe Breakdown
UFC 128 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey has one of the most enticing main events in recent memory.
The blue chipper Jon “Bones” Jones will be taking on Mauricio “Shogun” Rua for the UFC light heavyweight champion.
Can one of MMA’s top rising stars take out one of its most well rounded veterans?
Only time will tell, but for now, let us take a look at the head to toe breakdown of this intriguing title bout.
Height and Reach
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Jones stands at 6’4” and actually has the longest reach in UFC history at 84.5 inches.
Shogun has what is typically considered a pretty decent reach at 76 inches, but will be at a large disadvantage on this occasion.
Rua is 6’1”, so Jones also has a combined 11.5 inches on the champion when talking about height and reach.
Background
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Jones first began to catch the attention of the MMA community with excellent wrestling, and really all around grappling.
The New York native was a highly regarded amateur wrestler in high school, earning Senior All-American honors for his New York state title victory in 2005.
He followed this up with a Junior Collegiate Championship at Iowa Central Community College, where he then received All-American honors on the collegiate level.
Bones was also a USKBA Light Heavyweight Champion at kickboxing prior to entering MMA.
Sherdog’s number five light heavyweight in the world is currently training at (Greg) Jackson’s Submission Fighting in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is really helping his striking game.
Shogun is the type of fighter many MMA purists adore. The reason being is that Rua has been training in martial arts for basically his whole life.
Rua began training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at just six years old, and took up Muay Thai soon after at age seven.
In recent years, Rua began training in wrestling and boxing regularly as well.
Additonally, both fighters come from a family of athletes.
Bones had his brother Arthur get drafted by the Baltimore Ravens last year, while his brother Chandler is currently playing football for Syracuse. Both of the Jones brothers play defensive tackle.
Rua’s mother is a former track star, who still runs marathons today. His younger brother Marcos trains with him at Universidade da Luta in Brazil, but is yet to compete in MMA professionally.
Notable Wins
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Jones has defeated the like of Stephan Bonnar, Brandon Vera, and most recently handed Ryan Bader his first professional loss.
While Bones has one loss against Mark Hamill, the loss was due to a disqualification for illegal “12-6” elbows.
Bones was absolutely dominating Hamill prior to the DQ, and many consider the disqualification to have been a questionable call.
Many have accepted the fact that the elbows were illegal, but some argue that Jones should have won since Hamill suffered a shoulder injury; he would not have been able to continue fighting with prior to the elbow strikes in question.
The bottom line is if Jones vs. Hamill part II should ever happen, Bones would likely prove that the only way he is losing to Hamill is by disqualification.
Shogun is no stranger to questionable calls either, losing a unanimous decision to Lyoto Machida at UFC 104, despite seriously hurting the champion and giving him a run for his money from start to finish.
Rua did not wait long to prove that he was a worthy adversary of Machida’s, taking the belt from him in their rematch at UFC 113.
Shogun was decisive as could be this time around, knocking out Machida in the firs round.
In his almost nine year professional career, Rua has also prevailed against names such as Alistair Overeem (twice), Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Mark Coleman, and Chuck Liddell.
Long story short, both of these fighters come into this title bout with pretty impressive MMA resumes.
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Styles
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While we learned about each fighter’s respective strengths in the background slide, this slide is about how each man executes inside the octagon.
Bones is one of the most unorthodox fighters in MMA, making him exceptionally tough to play for.
While his great take downs and throws are expected at this point, it really does not matter as his grappling prowess just seems to overwhelm all comers
On top of that, his great elbow strikes and kicks confuse and daze opponents by seemingly coming out of nowhere.
Jones is also very good at finishing fights, with only two of his 13 victories coming down to the score cards.
Meanwhile, Rua is no slouch at finishing fights either.
His vicious stomps and football kicks on downed opponents, as well as some powerful punching ability, have allowed an astonishing 16 of his 19 wins to come by way of knockout.
Arguably, the biggest question in this fight is who will win the battle on their feet? Will Jones elusive striking and paramount throws reign supreme, or will Shogun’s power punching be too difficult to stop?
And the Winner Is….
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Jones via split decision. This is a gut call more than anything else, but Jones has simply been unstoppable since his professional debut in 2008 and has not shown any signs of slowing down.
Additionally, despite both men’s proven ability to end a fight early, there is going to be simply too much heart and skill flowing in the octagon on this occasion for either fighter to accept an early loss.
Regardless what the actual outcome is, expect this light heavyweight showdown to be one for the record books.
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