The takeaway from UFC 172's main event is simple: Jon Jones is the best mixed martial artist on the planet.
Jones took a fight with a skilled opponent, who many felt had little to no chance coming in to the fight, and he managed to make the fight look even more lopsided in reality than those people had it on paper.
It started with a simple, unorthodox maneuver. As the two fighters clinched against the cage, Jones took an overhook on Glover Teixeira's right arm and ripped hard with a shoulder crank. Not a gentle, apply a little pressure and gradually increase. No, Jones took the arm and ripped.
Teixeira asked for ice on his shoulder in the corner following that move. He would admit after the fight that he was hurt from that point onward.
It was yet another case of Jones just trying something new and succeeding.
Jones' performance in the cage can best be summed up by the words of his trainer, Greg Jackson, between rounds four and five tonight, "an amazing, artistic fight. It's beautiful to behold."
- Anthony Johnson returned to the UFC with a career best performance against Phil Davis. Davis coming in was either going to be a nightmare stylistically or a cakewalk. It basically came down to if Johnson could avoid the takedown. He did so quite easily, which meant that Davis' lack of a striking game turned him into a punching bag. Johnson is in position to make some really big waves at light heavyweight, but a more well rounded top ten fighter will provide more insight into where he truly stands in the division.
- Luke Rockhold came in against Tim Boetsch as a heavy favorite and found a creative way to still make dismantling him seem impressive. A reverse triangle choke to kimura was enough to make the expected seem special.
- Jim Miller provided a memorable moment with his violent choke of Yancy Medeiros. Once Meideiros went out cold, Miller sat under him and celebrated, then rubbing his head like an uncle doing a "that's a good boy" hair mussing.
- Max Holloway had an impressive guillotine choke finish of his own, stopping highly regarded Andre Fili in the final round.
- Fan favorite Takanori Gomi is a questionable decision loss against Diego Sanchez away from being on a four fight win streak after his win over Isaac Vallie-Flagg. That's impressive considering that Gomi appears well past his best days. Tonight's fight was a pretty entertaining scrap though as Gomi still knows how to excite.
- Joseph Benavidez landed his own thrilling guillotine choke finish, locking up Tim Elliot in what had been a very fun first round and choking him so violently that Elliot had to tap out using his feet.
- The card started with two huge KOs from Danny Castillo and Chris Beal,
- Finally, take the time to go check out tonight's Showtime boxing fight between Matthysse and Molina. It was the best action of the night (and UFC 172 was pretty damn good), and a fight of the year contender.