UFC 172 Aftermath: ‘Bones’ Owns, Beal Is For Real, Gomi Is Still Going
UFC 172 went down in Baltimore, Maryland, last night and provided a thoroughly awesome night of action. The card, from top to bottom, was the best of the year thus far in my opinion. The preliminary section of the card was the most exciting undercard I’ve ever seen in MMA, without a doubt.
So with such an awesome night of fights, another light-heavyweight title defense for Jon Jones, and some of the best finishes of the year; there comes a number of issues and points to opine. First and foremost:
Jon Jones is (almost) untouchable
‘Bones’ made his record-breaking seventh straight title defense as he dominated Glover Teixeira in the evening’s main event. The five round squash match put to rest the questions about Jones’ heart after UFC 165, and once again proved that he is just too far ahead of the rest at 205 pounds. That wasn’t the only point I took from the fight though…
Game plans aside, physicality is going to play a huge part in beating Jones, and shorter guys just don’t stand a chance right now. Alexander Gustafsson has the reach to get to Jones, and therefore if Jones gets past Gus, there may be no-one to put a stop to the reign of terror he inflicts at lhw.
Chris Beal is the ‘Real Deal’
By name and by nature, Chris ‘Real Deal’ Beal got UFC 172 off to a flying start, quite literally. After an awkward first round with the tricky Pat Williams, Beal came out in the second stanza with renewed vigour; uncorking a fantastic flying knee KO, followed by a walk away, boss style.
The only thing that could have made the knockout any sweeter is if the walk-off was timed with a sweet explosion, but that seems to be reserved for this guy. In seriousness though, I’m intrigued to see what’s next for Team Knucklehead’s Chris Beal after increasing his streak to 9-0.
The Fireball Kid has still got it
Although relegated to preliminary card action, Takanori Gomi put on an awesome display of heart, and boxing, in his win over Team Jackson product Isaac Vallie-Flagg. The Japanese fan favourite has had a troubled time since joining the UFC back in 2010, dropping losses to Clay Guida, Kenny Florian, Nate Diaz and Diego Sanchez.
The FOTN win over IVF sets Gomi’s UFC tally at 4-4, and hopefully he will start to hit his stride again soon. If he can work on his cardio and bring back th Gomi from the Pride FC days, then the UFC lightweight division could well be in trouble.
Props go to Phil Davis for eating his own words (there were a LOT of them) against Anthony Johnson, Joe Rogan for clarifying that ‘nothing gets inserted in to any orifice in MMA’, Danny Castillo for planking a Spaniard, and to Luke Rockhold who seemed to have inhaled a large amount of helium prior to his post-fight interview with Rogan.
