The UFC has reserved argubaly the top fighter in the world for a quick-turnaround bout, and I will give my thoughts on this brand new matchup in today’s MMA odds and ends.
Jon Jones vs. Anthony Smith UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones will put his belt on the line against Anthony Smith in UFC 235, which takes place March 2 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. TMZ was the first to report about the bout, with UFC president Dana White affirming the news together. The holdup now is that Jones still needs to get his permit in the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which should happen later this month later he has a hearing about his controversial failed drug test for picograms before UFC 232.
The information of Jones vs. Smith being reserved for UFC 235 came along with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani reporting that Kamaru Usman is set to combat UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley in UFC 235 in the co-main occasion. I wrote about that matchup in a week’s MMA odds and ends, which you may read here. The cole’s notes version of my thoughts on that bout would be that Woodley deserves to be favored based on the fact he’s the defending champion, but that I provide Usman a fantastic shot to win the title.
As far as Jones vs. Smith goes, it’s clearly the right struggle to book and it’s good news the UFC is making this battle instead of Jones contrary to Corey Anderson, which wouldn’t have been a competitive struggle. At least Smith gets the ending ability to make matters interesting, though Jones will still enter this battle as a gigantic betting favorite as a result of his unbelievable record and how good he looked in his return bout against Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 232, he won through third-round KO.
Jones (23-1, 1 NC) has an unbelievable 17-1, 1 NC record from the Octagon that includes triumph over Daniel Cormier, Gustafsson double, Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans, Mauricio”Shogun” Rua, Chael Sonnen and Vitor Belfort. By all accounts, he has one of the best resumes we’ve ever seen in the sport and he’s looked pretty much unstoppable in his MMA career save for a very controversial DQ defeat to Matt Hamill nearly a decade ago currently in December 2009. Smith (31-13) is among the most-improved fighters in the UFC. After racking up a 4-3 document as a middleweight during two different stints in the UFC, Smith has burst into stardom as a light heavyweight since moving up a weight class in the middle of 2018. He’s defeated Shogun, Evans and in his very last conclusion Volkan Oezdemir all by end, earning a title shot because of his unbelievable run at 205lbs.
As good as Smith has appeared at light hearted, it’s still impossible to prefer him to beat Jones, who has revealed hardly any flaws in his game since making his UFC debut over a decade ago. I would look for Jones to be around a -500 favored for this battle, and considering Smith has been finished 14 days in his career there is a good chance Jones stops him in this fight.
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