Jon Jones - Jones faced Shogun for the light heavyweight championship at UFC 128, in March 2011. It was his 8th UFC contest, with him having risen through the ranks at an unprecedented rate, holding a 6-1 UFC record. Considering this lone loss was against Matt Hamill, where he got DQ'd for basically beating him too badly, this is a damn fine record for anyone, let alone someone as young as Jones was at this time (23).
The fight started off even enough, with Shogun and Jones exchanging blows right from the beginning. Within a minute or so however, Jones had taken Shogun down, and from then on things went downhill for Shogun. Though he eventually got back to his feet, Jones began landing harder strikes, and spent the rest of the round putting a beating on Shogun. The most significant strike landed was a hard knee/shin on a bent over Rua by Jones, which he said later affected his performance for the rest of the fight.
The second round continued the same way, with Jones giving Shogun a serious standup beating for the first half or so, then doing the same in mount for the second half. Shogun looked like he was barely hanging on when facing Jones, and seemed to be having serious trouble with Jones' huge reach, but also from the speed of his strikes.
Shogun looked better at the beginning of the third round, striking more aggressively and managing to get Jones down at one stage. This was never going to last however, and as with many of Jones' fights, he just looked in a different league than his opponent, and we knew it was only a matter of time until he was back on top. This was how the third round went, and when Jones knocked Shogun to the mat with a huge knee referee Herb Dean stepped in and called an end to the fight. Dean looked ready to stop the fight for a while before Jones hit the knee, and though they called it a TKO, Shogun appears to tap just as he hits the ground, which one can hardly blame him for after taking such a beating. This was a fantastic performance by Jones, against an opponent like Shogun who has at times been considered the best light heavyweight in the world. And bearing in mind once again that Jones was only 23, making him the youngest light heavyweight champion in history, this seemed to many mark the time when Jones' rapid rise changed from extraordinary to legendary.
Lyoto Machida - Machida first fought Shogun at UFC 104, in October 2009. Machida was the heavy favourite going into the fight, as was to be expected since he was the light heavyweight champion, and still maintaining a perfect 15-0 professional MMA record. The fight went five rounds long, with back and forth action throughout. Machida fought his usual elusive style, but Shogun used a tactic different than those of Machida's past opponents. He focused more on leg kicks and strikes away from the head than standard striking, to the extent that Machida's mobility looked affected by the final couple of rounds. The style of Machida has been compared to that of Michael Bisping, in that it consists largely of backing up and counter striking. This proved to be the case in that fight also, as the judges awarded Machida the unanimous decision, giving him three rounds to Rua's two.
This decision was one of the most controversial in recent memory. Many fighters and MMA personalities have come forward since and stated that they thought Machida lost the fight, due to Shogun being more aggressive and doing more significant damage. Because of this controversy, Shogun was granted a rematch at UFC 113 in May 2010.
The rematch started off very differently from the first. Machida seemed to be using the same style that he usually adopts, fighting backwards in attempts to score points in a decision. Shogun was far more aggressive than in the first fight, and clearly realised that his only way to be sure of winning was to finish Machida, as noone else had done before. He pushed Machida backwards in the first round and began landing strikes, before knocking him down and at 3:35 pummeling him unconscious with punches, thereby giving him the first loss of his professional career.
With a fighter such as Lyoto Machida it is difficult to rate him on individual performances, simply because he seems to fight the same way in every fight. With Jones his offense is unpredictable, but with Machida his opponents have difficulty mostly because they are not used to the karate style that he brings to the fight. Lyoto fought well against Shogun in the first bout and got the decision, but once Shogun got motivated and came back he bested Machida with a brutal knockout. Jones fought with a fire that Machida has never brought to the table, and gave Shogun the beating of his career, in the very next bout after he KO'd Machida. For Shogun to look that impressive against Machida, and then get such a beating at the hands of Jones, furthers the theory that Jones really is in a league of his own. Gotta give this one to jones too.
Jon Jones
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