Anthony Johnson is the man to beat Jon Jones.

[The Great Cochrane]

UFC 172 was headlined by a pair of light heavyweight matches. Before we which, we saw Phil Davis who had recently been coming off a win over top middleweight contender Lyoto Machida talk smack about champion Jon Jones and clamor about how he deserved to be champion even going so far as to say he should have been given the belt by the UFC so he could "own fools".

Then he met Anthony Johnson.

Finding it nearly impossible to make welterweight and middleweight in the UFC, he was granted his release after failing to make 185 in his middleweight debut against Vitor Belfort, but after experiencing a 6 fight win streak at light heavyweight and heavyweight, he was invited back to the UFC where he met Phil Davis - whose only loss at the time was against his Blackzillian training partner Rashad Evans.

The match saw Johnson completely dominate Davis with a mixture of punches and kicks cleaning out Mr. Wonderful with a undisputed unanimous decision and dashing his title hopes. But the hopes that Davis had before running into this monster should rightfully belong to Anthony Johnson.

We saw in the Alexander Gustafsson fight that Jones was not prone to expert boxing, Johnson would definitely be able to hang with Gustafsson on the feet and unlike Gustafsson he possess the power to put the champion out.

With 11 of his 17 wins coming by way of knockout, Johnson has knocked out the likes of Jake Rosholt, Mike Kyle and a slew of welterweight contenders prior to jump to his weight class jump. His kicks may be relevant but would not prove to be as much a threat to Jones' massive 6 ft. 4 frame as his crisp boxing would be.

Now, a lot of people ask how Johnson's grappling would fare out against Jones' wrestling pedigree, it should be noted that Johnson himself is a former Junior College wrestling champion as well, and against taller fighters, Jones has had trouble out wrestling opponents (It didn't take for the 5th round until he took down Gustafsson).

The only trouble that he'd assume is cardio which is clear to be a benefit for the champion in later rounds. But if Johnson was able to get a quick start and rock the champion, he definitely has the formula to defeat Jones.

Author: Alex Cochrane.

 

[Swinny]

It's possible, but Gustafsson or Cormier beating him first is possible too. That first Gustafsson fight was great for the division because it showed that Jon Jones most definitely can be hurt and while Gus didn't quite pull it off that night, that he is not unbeatable. Now you have the rematch and real viable contenders like Cormier and Rumble waiting in the wings. For awhile it was looking like Bones was going to go through a stretch like Anderson did, fighting guys who were only getting title shots because there was no one else left, but the light heavyweight division is now the best that it's been since the Chuck-Tito-Randy days, I think.

 

[The Great Cochrane]

It's possible, but Gustafsson or Cormier beating him first is possible too. That first Gustafsson fight was great for the division because it showed that Jon Jones most definitely can be hurt and while Gus didn't quite pull it off that night, that he is not unbeatable. Now you have the rematch and real viable contenders like Cormier and Rumble waiting in the wings. For awhile it was looking like Bones was going to go through a stretch like Anderson did, fighting guys who were only getting title shots because there was no one else left, but the light heavyweight division is now the best that it's been since the Chuck-Tito-Randy days, I think.

Cormier doesn't pose much of a threat, his little t-rex arms will make it nearly impossible to get inside Jones' reach and take him down. Gussy has a better chance and the Manuwa fight definitely showed his improved ground game.

But should Jones get past Gussy, then Johnson's the man to do it.