UFC 285 Aftermath, My Thoughts
In the main event we saw the return of Jon Jones after a three year layoff to face Ciryl Gane for the Heavyweight Championship. I was worried for Jones before the fight due to the time away, not knowing how he was going to adapt to carrying around the extra weight, and also the fact that in his most recent outings, although he won all of them, they have been getting closer and closer. However, last night he put all those doubts to rest and showed us why he is the GOAT! He went in there, took the center of the octagon, walked Ciryl down, dragged him to the ground and tapped him out two minutes into the fight.
Not only did he beat Ciryl Gane, but he made it look easy. The look on Cyril’s face after being tapped out said it all. This was a flawless victory for Jones. After watching this, I feel had the original matchup against Ngannou happened, we would have seen the same result. They’re just not on his level. Though I am extremely interested to see how Jones fairs against Stipe Miocic, whom Dana White confirmed is going to be Jonny Bones next opponent. If there was one thing I noticed, it was that Jones at Heavyweight was considerably slower. I think he put on a little too much weight and I would like to see him ten pounds leaner in his future match with Miocic.
Jones has a tall order ahead of him. Miocic carries knockout power in both hands, has a wrestling pedigree, and I feel in my opinion will have a speed advantage against Jones in the weight class. I’m interested to see if Miocic will be able to stop the take down, and that if he does, how will Jones handle Stipe’s power in the standup game. I’m looking for to this exciting matchup.
Now let’s talk about the co-main event. All I can say is wow! I’m notorious for never caring about the outcome of a fight but being Mexican and knowing how the odds were stacked against her, I was rooting for Alexa Grasso to win. Not only did she become the first Mexican born female UFC Champion, but she did it against someone who hasn’t lost a fight in almost six years! In round one I gave it to Grasso, she landed the better shots and actually stunned Valentina. Her defense was good, and made the champ look hesitant to exchange. I gave round two to Shevchenko. She didn’t deal much damage but took the fight to the ground and controlled Grasso for most of the round. In round three, Grasso adapted. She was the more successful of the two on the feet and was able to stuff a few take down attempts, although eventually she did get taken down twice and remained there for most of the round. Although in the last 10 seconds of the round she was able to scramble and sink in a guillotine attempt, but it was too little too late.
I had Valentina up two rounds to one going into the fourth. Usually, Valentina tries to make a statement and beat people at their own game, however I feel that she did not feel comfortable at all with Grasso’s stand up and I also feel like she underestimated it. In this round I had Grasso winning the stand up exchanges and doing a great job of stuffing the takedowns which were becoming more telegraphed by the champ. During an exchange, Shevchenko went for her patented spinning back kick, but Grasso looked as if she drilled her counter to that move during camp, and flawlessly took Shevchenko’s back, and sunk in the rear naked choke. It looked like more of a neck crank, but the squeeze was soo intense that when she released the tap, you could actually see all of the blood pooling on the top half of Shevchenko’s head.
Before the fight, yes, I had hoped Grasso would win, although that is uncharacteristic of me, but ultimately I thought Shevchenko was going to be too big, too strong, and would’ve had the advantage in the stand up department. I felt Shevchenko sounded salty in her post fight interview and was talking as if the fight was one sided, stating that she just got caught and was well on her way to a win. I felt the fight was extremely competitive and thought the fight would have been 2 and 2 going into the fifth. Due to Shevchenko’s dominance over the women’s flyweight division over the past six years, I do think an immediate rematch is warranted. I expect Shevchenko to have a more grappling heavy approach from the get-go. If Alexa can stop the takedown’s and keep it on the feet, I feel she is on her way to another victory.
