The UFC has reserved argubaly the top fighter in the world to get a quick-turnaround bout, and I will offer my thoughts on this brand new matchup in today’s MMA odds and ends.
UFC 235 vs. Anthony Smith, jon Jones 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 record about the bout, with UFC president Dana White confirming the information with them. The holdup now is that Jones still wants to receive his license from the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which should happen later this month after he has a hearing about his controversial failed drug test for picograms before UFC 232.
The news of Jones vs. Smith being reserved for UFC 235 came alongside ESPN’s Ariel Helwani reporting that Kamaru Usman is place to fight UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley at UFC 235 in the co-main occasion. I wrote about that matchup in a week’s MMA odds and ends, which you can read here. The cole’s notes version of my ideas on this bout would be that Woodley deserves to be favored based on the fact he’s the defending champion, but I provide Usman a great shot to win the title.
So far as Jones vs. Smith goes, it’s obviously the ideal fight to reserve and it’s good news the UFC is making this battle rather than Jones contrary to Corey Anderson, that wouldn’t happen to be a competitive fight. At least Smith gets the finishing ability to make things interesting, though Jones will presumably still enter this battle as a massive betting favorite as a result of his incredible album and just how good he looked in his return bout against Alexander Gustafsson in UFC 232, which he won via third-round KO.
Jones (23-1, 1 NC) has an incredible 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 reports, he has among the greatest resumes we have ever seen in the sport and he has looked pretty much unstoppable in his MMA career save for an extremely controversial DQ defeat to Matt Hamill nearly a decade ago now in December 2009. Smith (31-13) is among the most-improved fighters in the UFC. After racking up a 4-3 record as a middleweight through two separate stints in the UFC, Smith has exploded into stardom as a light heavyweight since moving up a weight class in the center of 2018. He has defeated Shogun, Evans and in his last finish Volkan Oezdemir all by end, earning a title shot for his incredible run at 205lbs.
As great as Smith has looked at light heavyweight, it is still impossible to prefer him to conquer Jones, that has shown hardly any flaws in his game since making his UFC debut over a decade ago. I’d look for Jones to be about a -500 favored for this fight, and considering Smith has been completed 14 times in his profession there’s a fantastic chance Jones stops him in this battle.
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