UFC 135: Putting a Stop to the Talk of Jon Jones and Super Fights

Jon Jones is a great fighter. There’s no questioning that. There is some questioning as to some fans' ideas that Jones should be put up against Anderson Silva.

Following Jones’ beat down of Quinton Jackson, the post-fight press conference seemed to be abuzz about the possibility of Jon Jones and super fights. Even Dana White admitted that he and Jones have had discussions about Jones moving up to heavyweight.

Pump the breaks please.

Jones has defended the belt once, and while I admit his destruction of Mauricio Rua and his dominant win against Rampage are impressive, the UFC should be under no pressure to put Jones in any kind of super fight.

I do not want to discredit Jones’ win at all, but when you consider that many analysts (and the UFC hype machine) believed Rampage offered nothing but a punchers chance against Jones, is his performance so impressive it warrants a fight against Silva?

I think not.

Jones still has plenty of fights at 205. Rashad Evans is next in line of course, and while Evans is shorter than Rampage, he offers more tools to attack Jones with. Arguably for the past few years, Evans has been the best at 205 and he will do his best to make fans believe he is the one to dethrone “King Jones.”

Although a few fights away from a title shot, young prospect Phil Davis and former champion Lyoto Machida offer some stylistic matches. Davis is untested on the big stage, but he has shown glimpses of brilliance as evident by the “Philmura” against Tim Boetsch.

Machida’s style of in and out strikes could force Jones to leave his reach advantage. We saw last night that Jones has the awareness not to trade shots on the inside—but what if someone were to make Jones do the chasing?

I’m not saying Davis (9-0) or Machida are the answers to the Jon Jones riddle. I’m just saying that before people get carried away with Jones vs. Silva or Jones in the heavyweight division, let him first clear out his own division.

For every Anderson Silva or George St. Pierre, there’s always a Chael Sonnen or Matt Serra who reminds fans that on any given night any man can be beaten.