UFC 135 Jones vs. Rampage

Hi All,

UFC 135 Jones vs. Rampage is this month (September 24th) and I thought I would start a thread for everyone’s predictions on the card:

Light Heavyweight Championship bout: Jon Jones (c) vs. Quinton Jackson
Welterweight bout: Matt Hughes vs. Diego Sanchez
Heavyweight bout: Travis Browne vs. Rob Broughton
Lightweight bout: Nate Diaz vs. Takanori Gomi
Heavyweight bout: Ben Rothwell vs. Mark Hunt

Now I am terrible at predictions but here are mine:

Jon Jones vs. Quinton Jackson - Winner Jones via TKO / KO (I can’t see much chance of Rampage winning this one)
Matt Hughes vs. Diego Sanchez - Winner Hughes via UD (I've always been a Matt Hughes fan and would like to see him get back in the W column)
Travis Browne vs. Rob Broughton - Winner Browne via TKO / KO (I don’t like going against the Brits normally, but I have been really impressed by Browne and am going for a KO win for him in this fight)
Nate Diaz vs. Takanori Gomi - Winner Diaz via UD (Going for a punt here and saying that Diaz will get back to winning ways and snap his 2 fight losing streak)
Ben Rothwell vs. Mark Hunt - Winner Rothwell via TKO / KO (Mark Hunt has lost more fights then he has won in MMA, although granted a lot of his losses have come by the cream of the crop in the heavyweight division, but Rothwell is no slouch and I see him taking this one, either by KO or UD)

I only really have an opinion about the main event - I really like Jon Jone's attitude to his career. In a recent video on ufc.com he explains he thinks there is no end point to a martial artist's career but that it's the journey (of improvement) that's important. He has the spirit of a true warrior! He sounds very level headed too. Rampage is one powerful opponent and will probably look for an early stoppage. I think Jones has the skills to beat him but he needs to be pro-active otherwise if Rampage starts smothering him with combinations he could go down quickly. I'm going for a Jones victory just not sure how though.

Light Heavyweight Championship bout: Jon Jones (c) vs. Quinton Jackson (Only see a TKO victory for Jones here...although i would love Rampage to prove me wrong)

Welterweight bout: Matt Hughes vs. Diego Sanchez (Sanchez by TKO)

Heavyweight bout: Travis Browne vs. Rob Broughton (Another TKO this time for Browne)


Lightweight bout: Nate Diaz vs. Takanori Gomi (This is a tough one to call but i'll go for Diaz by SD)

Heavyweight bout: Ben Rothwell vs. Mark Hunt (Rothwell by TKO)

i thought hughes retired after the loss to BJ, glad he didnt though as although his style may not be the most exciting to some he really is a legend of the sport. When he and tito join chuck and randy on the sidelines will be end of an era.

Back to the bouts, want rampage to win but Jones is the modern fighter, an all round great athlete instead of just pigeon holed as a fighter so have to go with him by U.D

Hughes well i think will choke out sanchez.

Browne has been quietly improving so will go with him, Diaz by UD as Gomi isnt no slouch, and Rothwell is just a monster.

Hughes initially said he was going to retire after back to back losses to Georges St-Pierre and Alves in 2008 but he then went on to win 3 straight (Matt Serra, Renzo Gracie and Ricardo Almeida before the recent Penn loss). He now only takes interesting fights and says he doesn’t really hold out any intention of a run at the title and is only looking for fights that interest him.

With all that being said I just read Dana White’s Twitter feed that has stated Diego Sanchez has suffered a broken hand in training and is out of the fight! He did mention that they are going to try and find a replacement for Sanchez and twitter is going mental with names at the moment but Josh Koshchek name is being thrown out the most as the likely front runner

Kos Vs Hughes.... Man I hope Hughes wins that one by lay and pray, just so kos knows what it feels like!

if that is true and Kos steps in at the last minute, this stand-in fight excites me more than the original with Sanchez, although diffrent styles the sanchez would have possibly been more exciting as you say seeing Kos getting schooled at his own game is always good to see.

Shame as I really liked the idea of a Hughes vs Sanchez fight for some reason.

Although Kos is a d!ck, i'd love to see him smash Hughes.

Hughes just winds me up with all his self righteous and Holy God talk!

Jon Jones vs. Quinton Jackson - Got to pick Jones by KO. He's just A phenom. Would love Rampage to win it though.

Matt Hughes vs. Diego Sanchez/Kos - Hughes dec. Either fight is 50/50 for me. But since I prefer Hughes to both I'll go for him.

Travis Browne vs. Rob Broughton - Browne KO - Strange fight to be no3 in the main card. Seems to happen a lot to HW fights these days.

Nate Diaz vs. Takanori Gomi - Gomi KO. Nate is just too lightweight. He seems to always have a big power disadvantage in his fights- whether thats his striking or grappling. So the more powerful and better striker Gomi should win this.

Ben Rothwell vs. Mark Hunt - Rothwell KO. Hunt just isn't a mixed martial artist. he's barely a kickboxer these days!

Hi All,

Just watched the main card and a most of the prelims, what’s everyone’s opinion?

Jones looked impressive against Rampage but I think that’s mainly because Rampage didn’t look that great at all. It got FOTN bonus which for me was a bit weak.

I liked the Diaz vs. Gomi fight with Diaz picking Gomi apart. The two heavyweight bouts weren’t all that great with no finishes and bummed that Hughes go KO'ed (Hughes should probably not fight anymore).

All in all I have seen better cards but pumped that we have got Cruz defending his 135lbs belt next week, then of course the 145lbs and 155lbs belts are being defended the week after that (really looking forward to that card and especially Edgar, Maynard III but Florian fighting for the belt at 145lbs should be epic!) and then of course the week after that the 170lbs belt is on the line.

I totally predicted that Rampage had underestimated Jones and Rogan said it best when he described Rampage as frozen. It was a completely one sided fight and in the end Jackson looked foolish for all the trash talk.

I was very disappointed with the Gomi fight - I know its easy to criticise from my couch at home but I don't think he fought intelligently at all. Diaz outboxed him with his greater reach advantage and Gomi had absolutely no answers or plan B. Eventually I thought Gomi showed a great deal of niavity to get submitted by armbar. It was a good win for Diaz but the way the guy talks sounds as if he's taken one too many punches to the head. His speech is fuzzy and slow.

I was actually happy for Koscheck - my gut reaction was that he would lose and it looked early in the first that he'd made no real improvement since the GSP fight, but managed to finish Hughes in an impressive fashion.

I was delighted Mizugaki won - I really wanted to see him win and thought he fought far more intelligently than Gomi. He kept the fight standing, managed to prevent a standing triangle choke and dominated Escovedo with his accurate and aggressive boxing. I think that's what impressed me most was his aggression and how he controlled the pace of the fight. In the end he was too intense for Escovedo who just couldn't handle the pressure.

Think Hunt proved a few people wrong there. Never goin to get near the title but he is good entertainment and will be a good gatekeeper for prospects. Can see him vs Browne next. He should use more leg kicks.

Jones' last 2 fights have left me dumbfounded how he appears to so easily dominate 2 great fighters.

He's absolutely the real the deal, people can say Rampage is too one dimensional to trouble Jones which i agree with but Rampage is tough as nails and dangerous on his feet and Jones' never looked fazed!

Jones vs Evans will be a great considering their history inn the same team plus Evans' speed it should be a cracking fight.

Hyped people always come and go and i'm sure Jones will lose in MMA at some point (exc the Hamill loss) as all greats do/have but considering his age he can easily achieve one of the most successful careers in MMA.

PS - was very happy to see Kos KO Hughes!

Jones enjoys a greater reach advantage than a lot (all?) of his opponents and has the sharpness in his striking and agility to cause even hardened veterans like Rampage trouble. I definitely think for the time being Jones will remain undefeated - potentially even becoming the next Anderson Silva.

I know the winner of Shogun vs. Dan Henderson is probably going to be the next number 1 contender against Jones after the Rashard fight, but I am calling it now, Phil Davis vs. Jones is going to be the only fight at 205 that I see will cause any kind of trouble for Jones in the foreseeable future.
On another note John Jones legs look really thin I think that if someone can lad multiple leg kicks against him in a fight that will be more affective then trying to aim for his chin. As you see Jones literally ran away from Rampage when he managed to get inside Jones reach, granted it worked as Rampage couldn’t land anything but a few effective leg kicks could stop that running.