The rematch between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier for the UFC Light Heavyweight title will be one of the biggest fights of the year, with fans waiting to see what Jones will do in his first time in the octagon since last January. Since then, he had to deal with being arrested on felony hit-and-run charges which led to his suspension from the UFC for several months. With things seemingly under control, the question is what will Jones be like, and MMA legend Bas Rutten has some ideas and concerns about that.
To answer the question of who might win the fight, Bas brought us back in time to not that long ago when Ronda Rousey had her face-off with Holly Holm before she lost her UFC title to her. “Once we saw Rousey lose her cool at the weigh-ins, something happened there and right away, a friend of mine was there at my house and I showed it to him… and right away he goes, ’She’s going to lose. The other girl got in her head’.
“The same with Conor McGregor… he always gets in his opponent’s head and Diaz gets really close to him with his fist and he hits the hand away. You know, he loses his cool, he gets really angry at that moment and I go, ‘Wow, I didn’t expect that. It should have been the other way around. Maybe he is going to lose this fight.’
“Now with Cormier and Jones, it’s all about how did Jones deal with the problems outside. Can he squash it away, because… Tiger Woods… when he had a big problem in his life, he never came back from it…. and sports like that, it’s all done in the mind.”
Rutten does not discount the skills of Daniel Cormier, and says he has the tools to take on Jones now more than ever, but the mental game will be a major factor in that outcome.
“I do know that Cormier is an all different fighter now when he fought him the first time. He knows now what to expect. He knows Jones didn’t finish him, so he will come back even more hungry, especially after all the stuff that Jones has said. So, I see Cormier could win this fight but if Jones comes back fully to what he was before, it’s very hard to beat a guy like Jones.”
Ultimately, Bas believes that the mental aspect of this bout is much more important than any of the physical elements, and Jones body strength may not match his state of mind.
“I don’t know, it could all be a front. I mean, the way these fighters react to little things, I mean they post something about him and right away, he has to post a video and saying stuff. Chuck Liddell said something that he fights conservative and not to finish, and he goes right away all over Chuck Liddell, I don’t think that is people who are in control.”
“People who are in control and who are very confident about themselves are going to say, ‘Well yeah, that’s Chuck’s opinion. My opinion, needless to say, is different.’ They don’t need to go in a deep explanation… like firing back like that… I think it’s a front. We are going to figure it out if he is really calm once he is fighting.”
Bas Rutten will be joined this Friday on “Inside MMA” on AXS TV with new co-host, Mauro Ranallo, after AXS TV Fights.
If you want to hear the full interview I did with Bas, where we also discuss the future of Ronda Rousey in MMA, what is next for Conor McGregor, his thoughts on what Mark Hunt needs to do to become UFC heavyweight champ, weight cutting, and much more, check out the video below.