The outcomes most people expected were switched.

UFC 197 went down from the MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas on pay-per-view tonight (April 23, 2016), headlined by a light heavyweight interim championship bout between pound-for-pound stalwart Jon Jones and late replacement top ten 205er Ovince St. Preux. Jones failed to impress in his return to the Octagon.

Despite pitching a shutout on the judges’ scorecards, the dominant performance and stoppage that many predicted failed to materialize for “Bones”. Outside of a few big slam takedowns and elbow-laden ground and pound in the fourth, Jones’ most common weapon was his trademark oblique kicks.

The co-main event saw the other top-two pound-for-pound fighter in the world, Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, retain his flyweight title for the eighth straight time, cruising to a first round TKO over Olympic gold-medalist Henry Cejudo. Cejudo was able to score an early takedown, but Johnson chewed him up with elbows and knees in the clinch, wobbling him with a knee to the head and dropping him with a knee to the body. See how Twitter reacted to these pivotal bouts:

 

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In other main card action, Yair Rodriguez continued to impress. Pantera” scored his fourth straight UFC victory and earned his first stoppage with a jumping switch kick knockout of Andre Fili 2:15 into round two. MMA Twitter exploded. Check out the video and the reaction here:

 

Josh Stillman
Josh found MMA in 2009 and has been an increasingly voracious consumer of the sport ever since. He started writing in January 2016, first as a blogger and then as a writer for LowKickMMA. He produces historical list pieces, occasional news coverage, opinions, and fight analysis for LK. He also co-hosts the Daily Fantasy Knockout podcast.