What mattered most at UFC 247 in Houston? Here are a few post-fight musings …
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1. Jon Jones barely gets away with one
For Jon Jones or any of his supporters, that was far too close for comfort. The UFC light heavyweight title stayed with “Bones” in a controversial unanimous decision against Dominick Reyes, and the fight and fallout brought on eerily familiar vibes.
Those vibes are that of former longtime UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre, who, after putting on a series of five-round decision wins, seemed to be getting figured out by his opposition. St-Pierre’s final title fight at 170 pounds saw him get a controversial win over Johny Hendricks at UFC 168 in November 2014, and after that fight the French-Canadian vacated his belt and vanished from the scene for years.
St-Pierre had all sorts of reasons for making that move. His relationship with UFC management wasn’t great, his motivation was waning and he was unhappy with the state of drug testing in the sport. None of those things really apply to Jones, but the parallels of the actual fights are similar in that Jones took an inordinate amount of damage against a surging challenger, and many believe the title should have changed hands.
Jones’ head still seems to very much be in the game, but the fight with Reyes was a closer call than he and his team would have liked. Did Reyes just have a perfect night? Was Jones slightly off? These are questions we’ll never fully have the answers too.
What I do know, though, is that it does feel like Jones’ greatness is either slipping by a small margin, or his contenders are rapidly closing the gap. Remember that the Reyes fight comes after Jones eked out a split decision of Thiago Santos at UFC 239. Either way it could spell trouble, and it will be interesting to see how this fight changes his approach going forward.
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