I had a great night watching UFC 165. The truly great match last night was Jon Jones title defense against Gustafson. Great fight. Perhaps Fight of the Year. Five rounds of drama and action. Virtually all stand-up. Some creative and great stuff.They're both huge, both young (26) and it was the first time we've seen Jones struggle. The web is full of people calling the match fixed and misjudged and all that nonsense but to my eye, Jones won it. Even if he wasn't the champ, he won it. But this could be the start of a great long term rivalry.
Gus probably won the 1st and 2nd rounds. The 3rd was debatable. Jones won rounds 4 and 5. Gus almost got finished in the 4th, another 30 seconds and he was done. I think round 4 might have been the only 2 point lead round. And while I gave the 2nd to Gus, Jones did get in a pretty solid head kick to Gus in round 2. I would have scored, 1 point to Gus for each of 1-3, 2 points to Jones for 4, and 1 point to Jones for 5. So I would have had it a draw.
The judges scores were 48-47, 48-47, and 49-46. Whomever said 49-46.... bad judging.
But overall, there are rules of thumb for these matches.
1. To beat the champ, you must BEAT the champ.
2. Don't leave it in the hands of the judges.
3. Finish with momentum.
Jones hung tough, came back, won it. He earned his stripes last night. But the big point is: REMATCH!!!!
4 comments:
I'm a fellow late-blooming martial artist (I recently earned a black sash in kung fu at age 56), and I've read your blog from time to time and enjoyed your insights and observations. I'm sorry to hear about your back problems. I have mild scoliosis and I continually have to battle stiffness and soreness, so I can understand what you're going through. Anyway, I hope that you're able to recover from them and eventually return to doing karate.
Patrick J Kiger, I'm pleased to meet you. Thanks for stopping by. I've always been curious about kung fu. When David Carrington, the actor from the old kung fu series died a few years ago, I bought the DVDs of he old series and watched a set of them with my son. It made me realize how much that program built a mythology about the martial arts which I carry with me to this day.
BBat50
BTW, is this where you study? http://thompsonskungfu.blogspot.com/2012/04/tutorial-deer-technique-one-of-one.html
(I found it by following your name to a list of blogs). I grew up right there, I went to BCC high school (Class of 1976).
Hi..sorry it took me so long to return to answer! Yes, that's our school, Thompson's Kung Fu. Some of those videos, which are a couple of years old, have my son Minh in them. He's been training since age 5 and is 14 now.
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