Jon Jones’ victory over Mauricio Rua last night shouldn’t have surprised anyone. Despite Jones’ relative lack of experience, despite “Shogun” representing a huge jump in opposition, there was no doubting that Jones had the right combination of physical ability and raw talent to compete with the elite fighters in the division.
It was the manner in which Jones dominated the fight that was surprising — to me, if not anyone else. Rua had flashes where he looked like he belonged in the same cage as Jon Jones, but that was the extent of his effectiveness. Jones overwhelmed him with size, length, strength, and speed throughout the fight. Just how bad was it? Check out the FightMetric stats for the event:
- Jon Jones landed 102 strikes, 75 of which FightMetric classified as significant. “Shogun” tallied 11 strikes for the entire fight. He attempted 42.
- Jones went 3-for-3 in takedowns.
- To his credit, “Shogun” never allowed Jones to pass his guard.
- In the co-main event, FightMetric scored the fight 30-27 for Urijah Faber over Eddie Wineland.
- While he defended six takedown attempts, Wineland only landed 8 strikes during the first round. Faber landed 15.
- Faber outlanded Wineland by nearly 3-1 (61-21) over the course of the fight.
- FightMetric credited Faber with a mere 2 takedowns in 11 attempts.
- FightMetric scored Anthony Njokuani vs. Edson Barboza as a 29-29 draw with round one a 10-10, round two to Njokuani, and round three to Barboza.
- Njokuani outlanded Barboza 78-48 over the course of the fight. Njokuani also outlanded Barboza 33-17 in round three, though the Brazilian landed more effectively to the head and was credited with a sucessful takedown.
- Nate Marquardt moved to second all-time in Takedown Accuracy after going 3-for-3 with his takedowns against Dan Miller. Jon Jones moved to third all-time in the same category.
- Mirko Filipovic dropped from number one in takedown defense to outside the top ten altogether after surrendering four takedowns to Brendan Schaub.
- Jim Miller moved to seventh in significant strike defense.
- Eliot Marshall qualified for the lists with his fifth UFC fight against Luiz Cane, and lands at sixth and eighth respectively in takedown defense and significant strike defense.