It will take an epic effort to beat Jon Jones anytime soon – There are just no light-heavyweights that have the physical tools that Jon Jones has. The massive reach advantage and overall physical gifts can't be matched within the division (or possibly in the next one up either). The only ones with the type of skill set even seemingly capable of challenging Jones are a way off from contention. Only Anderson Silva and his Matrix level striking that he wants to keep in the middleweight division, Phil Davis with athleticism but no reach and Lyoto Machida who, as an elusive counter punching backpeddler has befuddled pretty everyone other than Shogun Rua, even seem to have a skill set that can trouble Jones. Considering that Silva is a middleweight and Davis and Machida are a long ways off from title shots at this point, the Jones era very well might be here.
Urijah Faber and Dominick Cruz should be coaching on The Ultimate Fighter – There is no better way to introduce the bantamweight division to the UFC than with an Ultimate Fighter coaching gig. With the existing rivalry that these two already have (Faber successfully defended his featherweight title when both fought at that weight in the WEC and handed Cruz his only career loss), there will be plenty of coaches drama and competitiveness on display. Also, Faber's assistants are likely to be his teammates from Team Alpha Male and all could use the extra exposure in their introductions to the UFC audience.
PRIDE is finally close to having the coffin closed – I started watching this sport as a fan of PRIDE. That said, the love shown by many hardcore PRIDE fans and disrespect shown by many UFC fans of the ear has been detrimental to attracting new hardcore fans to the major sites. Mirko Crocop's loss (likely a career ender) eliminates him from the picture at heavyweight just as Fedor Emelianenko's recent Strikeforce losses have done to him. Shogun Rua, while still likely to have a nice career in front of him, isn't likely to be champion again unless Jon Jones continues to grow and is forced to move to heavyweight. Rampage Jackson will likely get a shot at Jones, but it isn't likely to end well. The rest of the big PRIDE superstars are all on the downside of their careers if they even have a career left at this point. Only marginal PRIDE fighters Anderson Silva and Alistair Overeem remain at thee top of their weight classes at this point. To this I say bravo on great careers, thanks for the memories and don't hold on too long ala Chuck Liddell and his millions times being knocked out at the end of his career.
The Lightweight division is jammed – Jim Miller won again in the lightweight division and asked for a title shot. The problem he has is that it's not coming anytime soon no matter what he does. The title is tied up in the Edgar-Maynard trilogy at this point and the winner there is almost certainly getting the Anthony Pettis-Clay Guida winner after that. In addition, Miller has losses to both Edgar and Maynard, not a plus when trying to move into contention over guys where the matchups would be fresh. It seems the UFC is matching higher level contenders up with low-level lightweights hoping for upsets like Melvin Guillard's win over Evan Dunham and Dennis Siver's win over George Sotiropoulos to thin the contenders out. Even with those, the division is just a mess with all the WEC guys in the mix right now.
Anderson Silva, Georges St. Pierre and Jon Jones should stay right where they are – No superfights are needed. While St. Pierre will have cleaned out the welterweight division after beating Shields (if he in fact does so next month at UFC 129), Silva still has at the very least a rematch with Yushin Okami to finish off the middleweights. At the same time, many on the major MMA sites are now clamoring for Anderson Silva against Jon Jones instead of St. Pierre. Hold on with that. Jones has lots of work to do before he fights Silva unless Silva is permanently moving up. With that, the clamor is more for Silva to have some challenges once again. I really think people want to see Silva challenged by someone credible and they could care less who that is. It's not about St. Pierre or Jones or anyone else. It's all about Silva and the lack of competition he has faced at middleweight over the years.
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