Living hell part 1 The battle

Living hell part 1

The battle lines have been etched in the sand. The following days after UFC 128 have been filled with enough speculation and he said she said drama; it s starting to put the WWE s storylines to shame. Regardless of this tabloid turmoil, the fact remains the same: Jon Jones will be defending his belt against Rashad Evans. So let the pre-fight analyses begin. How well do these guys match-up? If you ask a Vegas bookie, not well for the former champ, who is being pegged as a 5-to-1 underdog right out of the gates an overzealous attempt at respectable odds. Considering the few advantages Evans has coming living hell part 1 the fight, he is certainly not the favorite. But, as a game competitor and former titleholder, those betting lines should read something closer to 215 and 3 Clearly Jones and Jackson make a dynamic duo. Whatever inside secrets Rashad might have absorbed during his training time with Jones will be neutralized by the same fact that Jones was sharing the same experiences under the same roof as Rashad. Unlike Rashad, who will have to readjust his training partners and training locations, Jones has a permanent home with a stable team of coaches. The art of striking in MMA traditionally consists of very little variety due to the low success percentage of the overly unorthodox techniques. Attempting a full rotation before any strike is risky; the opponent typically notices the telegraphed twitch making it easier to avoid or counter, and those types of strikes are too slow to land any real damage. Jones is one of the very few, especially at his age, who has compiled a highlight reel of such strikes. His creativity and accuracy on the feet will have Rashad guessing at every turn. Jones is a giant light-heavyweight coming in at 6 4 with a reach of 5in, ten more inches than Rashad s. With such a height and reach advantage, Jones will be able to frustrate Rashad with the jab and a nice variety of kicks, preventing him from executing a living hell part 1 take-down from such distance relative to his opponent. In turn, shooting from the outside will only make it easier for Jones to stuff the take-downs. If Rashad discovers a way to get inside to the clinch, he s at the mercy of a more powerful fighter capable of falling into top position after a throw, foot sweep or double-leg. Jones had no problem defending Ryan Bader s take-down attempts at UFC 126, a more decorated wrestling pedigree than Rashad, so he shouldn t have any issues repeating that success during his first title defense. Rashad s frenetic energy gives him the fuel to fire off his lightening hands and shots, allowing for quick level changes that are hard to handle for most of his opponents. Once Rashad gets his rhythm in line, his quickstep footwork keeps him slightly off balanced, but even harder to hit. Jones unorthodox striking is at its most dangerous when his opponents linger in front working few angles a predicament Rashad will unlikely find himself in due to his speed. Obviously the core facility for Rashad s vital speed advantage is his relentless pace most effective in the first half of fights budding from a finely tuned cardio regiment from years of training as a pro. At the start of the third round against Shogun, a good portion of Jones steam had dissipated. He wasn t at dangerously low levels, but he was becoming more sluggish, his movements a little more labored. Rashad s cardio has been through the grinder in some hard fought three rounds matches. If he can weather the early storm and tire Jones out, his chances of capitalizing on some mistakes increases tenfold, especially late in the fight. Simply put: Rashad is a black-belt to Jones white-belt. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu could be the underlining factor. Rashad has yet to win a fight by submission and Jones is more a one trick pony at the moment, winning with his headlock guillotine. But, if Rashad has taking anything away from his time at Jackson s gym, it should be the ability to formulate a perfect, often surprising, game plan. Being able to tap into a black belt level arsenal of submissions could be a luxury Rashad will have to tap into after finding himself on his back more often than not against his rival. What is the duplicate article? Why is this article offensive? Where is this article plagiarized from? Why is this article poorly edited? Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook? Wed like to send you the most entertaining MMA articles, videos, and podcasts from around the web. We are the USs 4th largest sports media site with 20 million monthly readers. We deliver entertaining content about all the teams and topics in sports. We have the most popular newsletters for every major team in the US.