from sherdog:

people who say "i got X by split" are such morons lol.

indeed.

koc,

"am i being overly dramatic if i say that could easily be FOTY if you factor in the stakes?"

No.

Jones is a muay thai based striker, so naturally his footwork sucks. Given his muay thai is super developed at this point, it's fairly safe to assume that under MMA rules with takedowns and an octagon as opposed to a ring, a boxing/footwork strategy like the one Gus employs is simply more effective.

It really evened out the wrestling disadvantage. The main negative was that it ran him face first into a bunch of kicks and elbows, luckily he has a hell of a chin.

Being impossible to take down didn't hurt either

So after having some time to digest the fight, I'm kind of liking Alex's chances in a rematch. I think he's the one who's likely to improve the most between the fights (assuming Alex goes 1-2 fights before he gets another shot).

If Alex adds a bit more techniques to his arsenal he'll become less predictable and I think making such improvements is quite possible even within a relatively short timespan. That's where Jones had his advantage this fight. I'd argue Alex had a footwork and speed advantage and that those areas demand more time for Jones to improve upon (if he'll be able to improve his speed at all).

I think what could give Jones an advantage is if he underestimated Alex in this first. I suspect Jones thought he'd be able to take Alex down at will and didn't focus on takedown in camp. If Jones builds a game plan around his takedowns and wrestling for the next fight, he might be more successful.

Jones was pretty busted up on his way to the hospital.

for one second i actually believed it was him. same skin color.

Just watched the ME, I don't think 49-46 was unreasonable at all (though I would've scored it 48-47). I thought it could very easily have been 48-47 Gus though. But god damn that was a great fight.

If there's no rematch, it's gotta be jbj/cormier and gus/glover. If glover gets the next shot I'll lose my mind.

As for the footwork, I don't know what constitutes good footwork per se, but watching that fight, I was acutely noticing how much more efficiently jbj seemed to be in movement. I don't know that it's necessarily a good thing, but I would guess gustaffson moved maybe 3-4 times as much distance during the fight which has gotta be tiring after 5 rounds. Sure, standing somewhat still isn't good for not getting hit, but he was definitely conserving a lot more energy.

just rewatched,

Round scoring:

Gus won round 1 for sure, jones 4 and 5 for sure. Ok we kinda knew that. (except for the weirdos)

Round 2, medium advantage jones. Especially for a big headkick and a big elbow. Seen worst rounds scored the other way.

Round 3 Slim advantage Gus. many many good kicks from jones and many good jabs/straights/uppercuts from gus.


Some other forums are really aids right now with the gus fans being the most vocal and crying robbery. They should probably get off rogan's nuts and/or understand what he meant when he said Jones might not have won one of the first three.

48-47 gus is by far the worst of the three acceptable scoring.

Jones won that fight by a slim but clear margin imo. He might have lost it by Nick diaz standards, but he wouldve also won it if there were no time limits, Gus was pretty done. Cant wait for the rematch.

It does suck that it was a match with rounds and not an overall fight with breaks. I think Gus would've won clearly if that was the case.

I know, dumb statement since the UFC/MMA will never run that way, but still. It's similar to thinking that if there was one more round, JBJ would've finished him, which I do think. Gus wouldn't have made it another full round.

I do have mad respect for JBJ now though. I never liked him as a person, but loved watching him fight. Now, I'm a full fledged fan. That's not nearly as surprising to me as it would be if I ever became a full fledged Benson fan though

Kirb,

Just rewatched as well and pretty much totally agree. That was why last night I thought it was a close but clear 48-47 for jones, and I thought one judge would prob give jones round 3. I don't agree with that, but also don't think it's crazy or anything. By the same token, I think it would be even more wrong, but also not super crazy to give Gus the first three.

I think Gus was a little ahead in the fourth until that elbow. And it was really interesting seeing jones notice Gus ducking under some punches and really measuring that elbow and going for it a few times and adjusting until really connecting once. I imagine that elbow and the knees took a ton out of Gus, and the fifth would have been really interesting without jones connecting at the end of the fourth.

Didn't notice last night how much trouble jones had leaving the cage.

I also disagree with dc and think that maybe jones got hit and hurt more often, but it was close. And with Gus so close to being put away in the fourth and then totally gassed in the fifth, I think overall you gotta give the fight to jones if judging as a whole.

Watched it again too. Round 3 is the only one I have trouble scoring. All five rounds were close, and 2, 3, 4 are all debatable (Jones barely landed anything after the elbow in round 4), but 48-47 or 49-46 (or 49-47) are really the only acceptable scorecards imo.

Fightmetric stats are really interesting. They scored rounds 2 & 3 as ties and the fight 49-48.

http://blog.fightmetric.com/2013/09/...icial-ufc.html

One thing about jbj in the close rounds is that he was the one stalking Gus and cutting off the ring. So if the striking is 50-50 the judges will give the edge to Jones as he appears to be the aggressor.

Yeah I don't know, just two completely different styles, don't think there's much merit in making a comparison like that. Like Condit in his fight against Diaz, I think it was necessary for Gus to circle and move like that in order for Jones not to find his distance and I think it was a carefully planned strategy. For someone moving as much as Gus, I think he was very relaxed and energy efficient, especially for a LHW.

That pic KoC posted is great.

I think there's also a ton of JBJ haters coming out of the woodwork. The most AIDSy Swedish forum, which is probably one of the most AIDSy places on the internet, is suprisingly balanced. Well, I did have to put some posters on ignore

Really? I figured that most JBJ haters would've changed their tune after this fight. I sure as hell did.

OK, I'll have to be the whiny bitch to point out that his post-fight interview rubbed me the wrong way. After giving Gus no respect at all pre-fight he deserved more props, rather than Jones going on about his warrior spirit and how that was more important than the W and what not.

Everything he does just rubs me the wrong way, but I'll give him cred for improving a decent bit over the last 2 years.

He didn't praise Gus, that's definitely true. I didn't think about that in the moment cause I was still reeling from the fight. I dug that he seemed to judge himself better then usual. I think part of that is that I still think he's still not as mentally strong as he could be.

He still does rub me the wrong way occasionally, but to less a degree. My increase in respect for him is almost strictly fight based.

I feel like if aggressiveness and octogon control were overly weighted for the whole fight, Gus would have won...

It was a close fight, and think Jones barely but deservedly got the nod. Both were just destroyed by each other....amazing fight.

What really got me was his comment "that guy DEFINITELY has a chin on him". What a backdoor self compliment lol. He did say he felt a sense of desperation, to be fair.