MMA ODDS AND ENDS FOR MONDAY: JON JONES VS. ANTHONY SMITH SET FOR UFC 235

The UFC has booked argubaly the very best fighter in the world for a quick-turnaround bout, and I will offer my thoughts on this brand new matchup in today’s MMA odds and ends.
Jon Jones vs. Anthony Smith UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones will put his belt on the line against Anthony Smith at UFC 235, which takes place March 2 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. TMZ was the first to record on the bout, with UFC president Dana White confirming the news together. The holdup now is that Jones still needs to receive his permit from the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which should happen later this month after he has a hearing about his controversial failed drug test for picograms before UFC 232.
The information of Jones vs. Smith being reserved for UFC 235 came alongside ESPN’s Ariel Helwani reporting that Kamaru Usman is place to combat UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley in UFC 235 in the co-main event. I wrote about that matchup in last week’s MMA odds and ends, which you can read here. The cole’s notes version of my ideas on that bout are that Woodley deserves to be favored based on the fact he is the defending champion, but I provide Usman a fantastic chance to win the title.
So far as Jones vs. Smith goes, it is obviously the ideal struggle to reserve and it’s fantastic news the UFC is making this battle rather than Jones contrary to Corey Anderson, that would not happen to be a competitive fight. At least Smith gets the ending capability to make things interesting, though Jones will presumably still enter this fight as a massive betting favorite as a result of his unbelievable record and how great he looked in his return bout against Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 232, he won through third-round KO.
Jones (23-1, 1 NC) has an incredible 17-1, 1 NC album from the Octagon that includes win over Daniel Cormier, Gustafsson double, Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans, Mauricio”Shogun” Rua, Chael Sonnen and Vitor Belfort. By all accounts, he’s among the greatest resumes we have ever seen in the game and he’s looked pretty much unstoppable in his MMA career save to get an extremely controversial DQ defeat to Matt Hamill nearly a decade ago currently in December 2009. Smith (31-13) is among the most-improved fighters in the UFC. After racking up a 4-3 document as a middleweight during two separate stints at the UFC, Smith has burst into stardom as a light heavyweight since moving up a weight class in the middle of 2018. He has defeated Shogun, Evans and at his very last conclusion Volkan Oezdemir all by finish, making a title shot for his incredible run at 205lbs.
As great as Smith has appeared at light hearted, it’s still not possible to favor him to beat Jones, who has shown very few flaws in his game since making his UFC debut over a decade ago. I would look for Jones to be around a -500 favored for this fight, and considering Smith has been finished 14 times in his profession there’s a good opportunity Jones stops him in this fight.
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