Jones Takes Another Step at UFC on Versus 2

Jon Jones made quick work of Vladimir Matyushenko at the second UFC live event to air on Versus, while Japanese Yushin Okami and Takanori Gomi had successful outings as well on Sunday night.

Jones was thought to be getting his first real test against the veteran Matyushenko, but at no point in the very short bout did Matyushenko ever pose a real threat to him. Jones landed a quick jab and a spinning back kick to the ribs early, and when Matyushenko quickly moved in to close the distance, Jones outmuscled him in the clinch and use leverage and technique to toss his opponent to the ground.

At that point, Jones quickly passed into side mount, where he was able to pin Matyushenko’s right arm with his legs, which signaled what was effectively the end of the fight. Jones hammered away with elbows to the head and face of Matyushenko, causing referee “Big” John McCarthy to stop the fight in just under two minutes of the opening round.

Afterward, a mature-beyond-his-years Jones gave all the right answers, saying that he would like a step up in competition but that he would leave the specifics to Joe Silva. He even made an Anchorman reference, closing with a “stay classy, San Diego”, which got the approval of the fans in attendance.

Meanwhile, Yushin Okami continued his climb back towards title contention in the middleweight division with a split decision in what was not quite as close a fight as the judges might have you believe.

In the first round, Okami controlled the first three and a half minutes by steering Munoz around the Octagon, landing straight punches on occasion and being the aggressor as Munoz looked very tentative. After shrugging off Munoz’s first takedown attempt, Munoz did get the fight to the ground with a successful takedown, though Okami was able to stand up. I had the first round 10-9 Okami because he performed better in the larger portion of the round, and because Munoz didn’t keep Okami down for long, doing no damage during the time he spent on top of Okami.

Munoz looked better in the opening of the second, landing a smacking body kick before returning to takedown attempts. Halfway through the round, Munoz clipped Okami with a big punch that wobbled him, but Okami recovered with a brief takedown. Munoz stood right up and landed a few more good shots, but puzzlingly went back to working for a takedown immediately after, allowing Okami to recover while defending the single-leg attempt. Munoz worked for a takedown for the last minute and a half of the round, which he already had in the bag in my book, 10-9.

Two minutes into the third, Munoz came forward aggressively with wide punches and ate a counter hook that hurt him, resulting in another well-defended takedown attempt. Munoz landed punches throughout, but Okami was more active, accurate, effective in the third while once again steering Munoz around the cage and defending Munoz’s single-leg takedown attempts with no problem. I had the third going to Okami, 10-9, as well as the fight by a 29-28 score. Two out of three judges agreed with me, with one turning in a 29-28 Munoz scorecard.

Takanori Gomi reverted back to his form from the old Pride days, planting Tyson Griffin right on his face with a right hand counter, then snapping away a couple of follow up punches that caused a referee stoppage just over a minute into their bout. From the get-go, Griffin looked as if he respected Gomi’s power, though he was having some success with leg kicks as the first round got underway. In fact, Gomi shrugged off a nice leg kick from Griffin to his lead leg immediately before he threw his powerful right hand that dropped Griffin to the canvas.

Afterward, a visibly frustrated Griffin debated the stoppage, but was wobbly and barely able to stand while doing so, which undermined the effectiveness of his argument. Griffin, who has now lost two in a row, avoided a couple of attempts by Gomi to talk after the fight. Still, Gomi was understandably excited after bringing a vintage “Fireball Kid” performance to the UFC fans for the first time.

In other action, Jake Ellenberger got the best of John Howard after causing a huge mouse on the right eye of Howard that convinced the cageside doctor to stop the fight in the third round.

Howard gave Ellenberger a taste of his power early, and Ellenberger immediately looked more cautious afterward, though he was able to tie up Ellenberger against the cage. For the rest of the first round, Ellenberger worked for- and got- takedowns while controlling Howard on the mat for an easy 10-9 round. Howard started off the second round with a beautiful head kick, but was unable to capitalize with punches as Ellenberger worked for another takedown. After a couple of minutes of effective, if unremarkable ground and pound, Howard was able to stand and land a couple of decent shots before his aggressive pursuit of Ellenberger got him taken down again.

By the third round, Howard was sporting an extremely swollen left eye that had essentially closed after the first ten minutes of action. Still, he was undeterred and cracked Ellenberger with a flying knee that had Ellenberger scrambling to get some space and recovery time. However, just a couple of minutes into the last round, the doctor deemed that Howard couldn’t see out of his left eye and called a halt to an entertaining scrap.

In other bouts, Charles Oliveira had an amazing UFC debut, submitting Darren Elkins via arm bar in just forty-one seconds. For some reason, Elkins took Oliveira down right away, and Oliveira threw his legs up for a triangle just as quickly. From there, he transitioned to a triangle-arm bar combination, then settled for just the arm bar to coax the tap.

Of course, the night wouldn’t be complete without some Chael Sonnen trash talk. During a televised interview with Joe Rogan, Sonnen got some last-minute hype in, including a message to Silva where he said that “you ducked me for four years, and I strongly encourage you to make it four years and one week,” adding that he would take Silva’s belt and Dana White would fire him afterward. Rogan did a good job of riling up Sonnen, asking him what he thought about the Maia fight, to which Sonnen said that Silva doesn’t train as hard as him and that this Saturday “he’s gonna be in a fight for the first time of his career.”

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Tags: Anderson Silva, Chael Sonnen, Jake Ellenberger, John Howard, Jon Jones, Mark Munoz, Takanori Gomi, Tyson Griffin, UFC, UFC on Versus 2, Vladimir Matyushenko, Yushin Okami