UFC 165: Jones vs. Gustafsson

[John Hancock]

 

http://punchdrunkgamer.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/ufc-165-banner.jpg

 

September 21st, 2013

Air Canada Centre

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

 

Jon Jones © vs. Alexander Gustafsson

Renan Barao vs. Eddie Wineland

Brendan Schaub vs. Matt Mitrione

Costa Philippou vs. Francis Carmont

Pat Healy vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov

-

Mike Ricci vs. Myles Jury

Chris Clements vs. Stephen Thompson

Mitch Gagnon vs. Dustin Kimura

-

John Makdessi vs. Renee Forte

Jesse Ronson vs. Michel Prazeres

Roland Delorme vs. Alex Caceres

Nandor Guelmino vs. Daniel Omielanczuk

 

[video=youtube;RyR1G-GzZtU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyR1G-GzZtU

[John Hancock]

Fight week. Who want's to see the worst trailer for anything in history?

 

[video=youtube;n90HQH8l4z8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n90HQH8l4z8

 

That isn't a fan thing by the way, that UFC's official YouTube account. I'm embarrassed for everyone involved in MMA on any possible level.

[dannytsg]

I think jones takes this but he has early trouble figuring Guatafson out.

[John Hancock]

I agree pretty much exactly, I think Jones wins a tough fight, and maybe even loses the first round before getting back into the flow.

 

My predictions for the main card are;

 

Jones

Barao

Mitrione

Carmont

Nurmagomedov

[Chris2K]

That video is so bad that it's on the verge of being offensive.

 

Jones

Barao

Schaub

Phillippou

Khabib.

[The Beltster]

Does anybody really think Gus has even a sniff of a chance? I really dont see him doing anything.

 

Watch him win now :lol

[Eddie]

[video=youtube;65_V_X5mNZ4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65_V_X5mNZ4

 

I love Chael with all my heart

 

"I think we can both agree I would likely win" :wub

[Maxximus]

"Please don't. Just leave me alone, Chael." :lol

[dsrchris]

I could watch that man all day... :wub

[John Hancock]

Pre-fight news;

 

- The UFC is aware that the success of Mayweather vs. Alvarez will probably damage this show's buy-rate, especially in the Hispanic market.

 

- Jon Jones "changed his life" over the last year to adjust to the pressure, fame and money that comes with being champion that he didn't deal with well at first.

 

- The UFC books it's events to be after big boxing matches, not before them, because, that way, they get more cross-channel marketing slots. The UFC only really changes itself plans for Mayweather fights, they "don't sweat" any other boxing matches.

 

- Josh Thompson is getting a shot at the Lightweight Title because he's the only contender who hasn't had a shot yet, it's not to do with his self-promotion by shit-talking Pettis.

 

- There are plans for a UFC event in Poland, maybe as early as next year. There's also plans for an event in The Philippines which would be "huge". UFC fighters are Beatles-level celebrities there, and both GSP and Chuck Liddell were both so heavily mobbed by fans when they were doing promotion tours there that the had to be given full-time police escorts for crowd control.

 

- UFC isn't very big in Sweden, but the mainstream Swedish media has really caught onto it thanks to Gustafsson. The pre-fight events had a large Swedish media presence, many of whom had very little understand of how MMA worked, or just how big the UFC was in North America.

 

- If Gustafsson wins, he'll defend the title in Europe, most likely in Sweden itself.

 

- If Dominick Cruz isn't back in the UFC by next Spring, he'll be stripped of his title, and the Interim Bantamweight Title will become the real one. Either way, this show's fight between Barao and Wineland will be the last time the title is considered interim.

 

- Dana White said the reason boxers make more money than martial artists is that boxing has been around "forever", but MMA has only been turning a profit since 2007, and most of the profits made by events are spent on opening new markets. Once MMA is an established world sport, fighters can start expecting boxer money.

 

- The UFC doesn't plan on using a Money gimmick to promote a UFC guy because Dana doesn't believe anyone could do a better job as "that character" than Mayweather does and it wouldn't work.

 

- It was mentioned that The Ultimate Fighter is making Ronda Roussey unpopular because of her personality, something Ronda herself suggested might happen after watching some of the episodes back, which upset her a lot. Dana says he doesn't see it, and reminded people that Ronda is the sole reason why there's even a women's division in the UFC.

 

- The UFC would consider doing a women only season of The Ultimate Fighter but, right now, Dana doesn't think there's enough good female fighters to make an entire season out of.

 

- Dana called Showtimes pursuit of HBO as the main boxing channel in America "amazing". He thought they did "a great job".

 

- Dana thinks Bellator is stupid to expect people to pay $35 for a pay-per-view when people won't even watch them on T.V. for free. The UFC doesn't consider them to be real competition, and called their signings of ex-UFC guys "desperate". Several people commented that it seems like Viacom has taken control of the company from it's President, and is pushing to copy the UFC more and more.

 

- Jim Ross has announced he wants to work for an MMA company. Dana says he likes Ross a lot, and the two have met at the UFC's office in Las Vegas, but said that he "hadn't thought about" whether or not the UFC should employ Ross in any capacity.

 

- The next regional season of The Ultimate Fighter will be in China. There will be a Mexican season in the future.

 

- Dana White thinks Chael Sonnen "needs to knock that shit off... he's got to stop" in reference to Sonnen making jokes about Rihanna being domestically abused by Chris Brown. Sonnen later apologised.

 

- Cain Velasquez was at the Mayweather fight with Dana and he got a "great" and "big" reception from the Mexican fans. Not as big as Canello's reception though. Cain is the most popular fighter the UFC has "ever had" in Mexico.

 

- The winner of Cain/JDS III will fight Fabricio Werdum next.

 

- The decision to make Frankie Edgar vs. B.J. Penn a featherweight fight at the end of the next season of The Ultimate Fighter (which they will coach) was made by Penn himself, it was his idea. Dana seemed unsure about weather or not Penn can actually make 145 lb.

 

- The UFC are launching a fitness and weight-loss program to compliment the UFC Gyms, which Dana sees as a great success, and a good option for ex-fighters to retire into where they can still make money. Dana stressed that all UFC Gyms are for health and self-defence, they aren't fighter camps, and he openly discouraged professional or semi-professional fighters from training at them.

 

- The UFC allows fighters to bet money on themselves, but they aren't allowed to bet against themselves to avoid fighters taking dives for money.

 

- Dana thinks Chuck Liddell was the biggest celebrity, at his peak, that the UFC has ever had.

 

- Dana has noticed that the female fighters seem to having a harder time coping with negativity and insults from fans on things like Twitter, or getting booed at live events compared to the male fighters. The female members of the press agreed.

 

- Jon Jones has commented that he wants to start getting roles in movies. Dana used Ronda Roussey as the example of the perfect person to work with in that regard because she always coordinates her media duties with the UFC.

 

- Ticket sales for GSP vs. Hendricks have been "awesome".

 

- The loser of Alistair Overeem vs. Frank Mir is probably getting fired.

 

- Dana White hates the website MMAJunkie for being one-sided. The UFC doesn't blackball journalists for being negative, as long as they don't actively lie, or publish rumours a present them as fact. Dana also denies that the UFC gives preferential treatment to media groups like Vice Magazine. Josh Gross (ESPN) and Loretta Hunt (Sherdog.com) were the only two journalists Dana can remember who are banned from UFC media events for life.

 

- There's no plans to release the UFC "dark age" (roughly the period between UFC 13 and UFC 39) on DVD because Dana doesn't think enough people will bother buying them.

 

- Rich Franklin wants one more fight before he retires. He's also launching a juice bar business. Dana has no intentions of letting him fight again.

 

- Dana criticised Urijah Faber for being too nice and having "no killer instinct at all".

[John Hancock]

This show is TONIGHT. What's everyone's predictions, and will anyone being staying up to watch?

[Magic]

I've been roped in to work tomorrow, otherwise I would stay up seen as my girlfriend is on night shift.

 

But I'll go:

 

Jon Jones

Renan Barao

Brendan Schaub

Francis Carmont

Pat Healy

Edited September 21, 2013 by Magic

[Maxximus]

I'll be watching.

 

Jones

Barao

Mitrione

Phillippou

Khabib

[GENE]

I'm staying up for it.

[John Hancock]

If you're not watching this main event, you're missing out. Gustafsson is absolutely legit.

 

EDIT: I had it as a complete tie, it was super, super close, so Jones winning is fine by me. I had it 10-9, 10-9, 10-9, 8-10, 9-10 which would make it 47- 47 tie. What a fantastic fight, instantly one of my all time favourites.

Edited September 22, 2013 by John Hancock

[Maxximus]

That may have been the best fight I've ever seen. I'm gonna have to watch it again for sure. Like Dean's prostate, my stream was laggy.

[dpddave]

That was an amazing fight. If Silva wasn't such a spaztard we'd be looking forward to a superfight now.

[Chris2K]

Fight of the year, no question. Jones is a lucky guy (the 49-46 scorecard was probably too one-sided) and Gustafsson is the real deal.

[John Hancock]

Both guys went to hospital after the fight. Jones seems to have injured that same left foot again.

[The Beltster]

I watched the fight twice and scored it the same both times, 3 rounds to Gus, he 100% won that fight in my eyes without question. I knew though, once it went to decision, that Jones would get the nod. Gus should be the champion right now of that I've no doubt.

[John Hancock]

I gave him the first three rounds too, but I also gave Jones a 10-8 in the fourth because he was maybe one or two strikes away from finishing at certain points. I haven't seen any of the official scorecards, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was that fourth round that tipped a draw or even a Gustafsson win over into a Jones win. As I said before, I had Gus winning the first three 10-9, Jones winning the fourth 10-8, and Jones winning the fifth 10-9.

[The Beltster]

I didnt give him 10-8 because he really only seemed in trouble right at the end of the round and only for about 30-40 seconds, the rest of the round was pretty even. Definitely a round to Jones but I couldnt give him 10-8 on it. I'm gutted for Gus and Sweden, imagine if he had one, damn, those guys would be celebrating and we'd have the first European UFC champion right?

[John Hancock]

First European Light-Heavyweight Champion, Bas Rutten (Netherlands) and Andrei Arlovski (Belarus) won the Heavyweight Title back in the day.

 

There's talk of an instant rematch, possible in Europe, which would be killer.

[The Beltster]

Sorry I should have mentioned the weight division, my mistake.

 

I dunno how they are going to get around Glover's promised title shot though. I have a feeling they'll both have a fight each, on the same card, (Bones/Glover& Gus/whoever) and then rematch up afterwards.

[John Hancock]

I'd go with the same thing, but UFC needs to do the old boxing trick and feed Gus someone shit. They've shot themselves in the foot so many times with real number-one contendership fights.