UFC 135 Results: Can Anyone Beat Jon Jones? Is Rashad Evans the Man To Do It?

Last night in the main event for UFC 135 in Denver's Pepsi Center, 24-year-old light heavyweight champion Jon Jones was faced with his first tile defense and the biggest test of his young career.

Jones didn't just pass the test, he came through with flying colors against former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.

Rampage never looked in danger of being knocked out against Jones, but he couldn't really land anything as Jones' dynamic attack with kicks, knees, elbows and punches was simply too creative and explosive for Rampage to deal with.

Rampage eventually succumbed to a rear naked choke early in round four of the championship fight.

Up until last night, people questioned the hype surrounding Jones and with good reason. He is so young and despite putting on some of the most spectacular fights from start to finish ever seen, it was against a lower level of competition.

His biggest win up until the showdown with Rampage was against Mauricio "Shogun" Rua for the light heavyweight title. Jones dominated Rua from start to finish, which resulted in a third-round technical knockout of the former Pride star. The problem with the win over Shogun was that Shogun was coming off another massive knee surgery, and the last time that happened to Shogun he looked awful as well.

Rampage, on the other hand, was in the best shape of his career last night and he was as motivated as ever to hand Jones the first real loss of his career. Unfortunately for Rampage, he never came close.

After last night's performance, it became increasingly obvious that finding an opponent in the light heavyweight division who can compete at Jones' level is going to be a tall task for UFC matchmaker Joe Silva.

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans is the next man to get a crack at Jones' title, but will he really be the guy to dethrone the champion? Possibly.

Evans has been around the fight game for a while and in 18 professional contests he has 16 victories, one loss and one tie. The lone loss came in his first title defense against Lyoto Machida where he was knocked out in Round 2 of their contest.

The question is, what does Evans bring to the table that Jones' previous opponents didn't already have? Well, he is good at some of the same things Jones is good at.

Rampage and Shogun had the knockout power to put Jones to sleep, but they were missing the speed and the reach to be able to get inside and land those shots.

Of course with an 84.5-inch reach, nobody is really going to win the reach game with Jones, including Evans.

What Evans does have is the speed and footwork to get inside and he has proven in fights with Sean Salmon, Chuck Liddell and Forrest Griffin that he can put guys away with his punches and kicks.

Evans is also a great wrestler, unlike Rampage who has great defensive wrestling but lacks offense, Evans couples is excellent all around.

A great wrestler with a ton of speed and explosiveness, coupled with a solid footwork and decent striking isn't a style of fighter Jones has faced yet in his young career.

Whether or not Evans' style will make a difference in a fight with Jones is a debatable issue, but Evans is definitely a different kind of test for Jones to pass.

Should Jones beat Evans like he has previous opponents, are there any other tests for Jones at only 24 years of age?

Stylistically speaking the always elusive Lyoto Machida would definitely be another test for Jones as Machida has always proven difficult to hit and take down. His style has frustrated many and it would be interesting to see if it could frustrate Jones.

Let's face it: anyone who can land a Crane kick knockout like Machida did against Randy Couture is a threat to anyone inside the Octagon.

Phil Davis, a strong, fast and explosive wrestler in his own right, might be able to challenge Jones down the road, but for now he is still too early in his development to be a threat to the current champion.

Aside from those names listed, there aren't many guys left who can challenge Jones.

Dan Henderson is having a great run late in his career and is scheduled for a fight with Shogun in November. The problem with Henderson is that he is much slower than Jones and despite being an excellent wrestler, his wrestling defense has always been weaker than his offense and Jones has tremendous offensive wrestling.

If we start talking about guys outside of the light heavyweight division, current middleweight champion and pound-for-pound great Anderson Silva would definitely be a tough fight for Jones.

Silva has fought at light heavyweight in the past and was very successful on the occasions that he moved up. With Silva's creative and unpredictable attack any fighter, including Jones, has to worry about the unexpected.

The only problem with the Silva fight is that Silva has expressed his disinterest in moving back up to light heavyweight. At 36 years old, he might not be fighting anymore by the time Jones cleans out the light heavyweight division.

There has been a lot of talk around the idea of Jones eventually making the move to heavyweight. The champion is very lean at light heavyweight and there is definitely room for him to pack on some extra muscle to his 6'4" frame. In fact, Jones' build is very similar to what current heavyweight force Alistair Overeem's build was like when he fought light heavyweight earlier on in his career.

If Jones made the move to heavyweight it would be interesting to see how he would deal with the combination of speed and power in guys like Junior Dos Santos and Cain Velasquez or the sheer size and strength of heavyweight brutes like Overeem and Brock Lesnar.

In any case, there are some interesting matchups for Jones left at light heavyweight and afterward at heavyweight, but just because they are interesting doesn't mean he is going to lose. After last night, it looks as if it might be a while before Jones loses for real inside the cage.

All things considered, we haven't seen how Jones reacts to taking a good shot from an elite fighter and despite his dynamic striking he doesn't possess that one-punch knockout power that the heaviest handed guys of the division possess. If nobody can land a punch on Jones and if he is finishing guys despite the lack of knock out power, do these unknowns or weaknesses even matter? We'll just have to wait and see.

Leon Horne is a writer for Bleacher Report, Follow @Leon_Horne

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