Jones versus Rua: A Watershed In MMA History

Five years ago, in March 2011, a young and green Jon Jones found his way into the biggest fight of his career: what was considered to be a premature title fight against the long time PRIDE FC superstar and recently crowned UFC light heavyweight champion, Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua. Half a decade on and witnessing the calculating and merciless fighter Jones has become, turning every inch of height and reach to his advantage and not even allowing his opponents into the fight, it is fascinating to return to this bout and watch a reckless Jones. The Jon Jones who would throw a spinning kick, miss, and give up his back, making his own life more difficult than the opponent ever could on their own. The Jones that many fans preferred.

Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua was neither the wash up that some Jones detractors pretend he was, nor the top tier champion that others would like to imagine. Rua was undoubtedly getting on in his career by the time he fought Jones and his knees continued to be a check on his ability, taking him out of action or limiting the training methods he could use. On his arrival in the UFC in 2007, Rua, the man whom many thought to be the greatest talent at two hundred and five pounds, lost a shocking upset to Forrest Griffin in one of the finest fights of the latter's career. Returning from a lengthy lay off in January of 2009, Rua took on the forty four year old Mark Coleman and while Coleman was obviously in no shape to be fighting any more, Rua gassed out hard. Even though the fight was awarded "Fight of the Night" it was abysmal as a supposed return to glory for Rua.

Yet as most were ready to give up on him, Rua turned it all around. From two of the worst performances in his career, 'Shogun' went on to have three of the best, back-to-back. Part of this was in managing to whip himself into top condition once again, but the majority of this had to do with Rua actually sticking to an intelligently built gameplan rather than relying on his talent and power to carry him as he had previously. Against the fading legend, Chuck Liddell, Rua looked untouchable. Uncharacteristically cautious but never to the detriment of his offensive output, Rua worked Liddell over from head-to-toe, before knocking the former UFC champion out with his signature shifting left hook.

It was then that Rua met UFC champion, Lyoto Machida. To that point, no one had shown an answer for Machida's giving of ground to set up unpredictable simultaneous counters. Rua proved the first to provide an answer to 'The Machida Riddle' with his excellent use of low kicks to hack away at the trailing leg when Machida retreated. The two fought a brilliant bout with most fans thinking Rua got the better, but the judges gave Machida the decision. Controversy abounded and the two met again in May of 2010 to fight for a more conclusive result. Rua's low kicks once again bothered Machida but after a picture perfect counter knee strike, the champion got caught hanging around in the pocket too long, and a Rua overhand put him down for the KO. To many fans, Shogun had begun to actualize his tremendous potential and match fight smarts to his always evident technical and athletic talent.

Jon Jones had hardly bested a murderer's row of talent by 2011, his previous three victories being over Brandon Vera, Vladamir Matyushenko and Ryan Bader. He was a prospect, no doubt, but placing him in against the man who had just stopped Lyoto Machida in three minutes seemed an almost sadistic leap in competition. As it transpired, spectators were treated to one of the most lopsided title fights in modern MMA history, and to the bizarre juxtaposition between Jon Jones' ruthless application of the Jackson / Winkeljohn gameplan and his own reckless quirks which provided the few moments in which Rua broke through and had a chance at some offence.

Jones' natural ability and the freedom that his wrestling chops gave him on the feet were evident from the opening bell. The young American immediately leapt up and hit the champion with a knee strike, seconds after the first round had commenced.

The two swung simultaneous right hands, both missed, and Jones snatched up a head and arm clinch, hitting a beautiful outside trip to get the fight to the mat for the first time.

It was here that the Jackson / Winkeljohn team's strategy became obvious. They intended to grind on Rua on the ground, wind him with body blows when possible, and watch him fall apart in the later going. Rua, always being a fighter built around speed and power on the feet rather than a deep bag of tricks and artful footwork, now had a ticking clock on his chances.

Rua's bottom game had always been about the deep half guard and leg attacks when the underhooks enabled him to get underneath his opponent from half guard. Far from a slouch on his back, Rua had swept the world class grappler, Ricardo Arona with an omaplata in the course of winning the 2005 PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix. Jones' stifling of Rua's half guard was perfect. Whenever Rua dug for the underhook, Jones would stuff his head in under Rua's own, preventing Rua from closing the distance, or he would jam a hand or elbow under Rua's throat and drive himself far back from Rua's head.

Rua was never afforded a good opportunity to get underneath Jones and instead exerted himself trying to draw Jones over the top of him, which Jones easily posted on his hands to prevent and went back to grinding on Rua from the top position.

Jones dropped forearms and elbows on Rua's ribs whenever a lull in the action came. A tremendously under-rated strike, this was utilized by both Georges St. Pierre and Matt Hughes to gas out the formidable bottom player, B.J. Penn. More recently, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira forced Tito Ortiz into submission with this strike alone.

As Rua pushed out to get back to his feet, Jones dug in a severe knee to the ribs as Rua scrambled from the turtle to his feet, continuing into a combination.

As the fight returned to an upright position, Jones' unpolished striking and wildness was obvious as he lunged with running hooks and swings, but he was beginning to experiment with the low line side kick which has enabled him to rule the distance in all of his fights in the last three years.

Not to mention the cheeky flared fingers thrown out in the path of the opponent's eyes. Always, sadly, something we have to touch on when Jones fights.

Rua's lunges were already looking labored and telegraphed in the first round. Never a man to fake or feint, the obvious pause, gritting of teeth and preparation for a running swing was just too obvious to Jones, who was able to clinch and turn Rua at every opportunity, often placing the latter on the fence and opening up with blows immediately afterwards.

Jones' youthful eccentricities threw him into trouble on a couple of occasions, willingly giving up his back to Rua, but his top notch wrestling and the fact that he had obviously prepared for the drop to leg entanglement that Rua had shown a dozen times before this meant he was never in danger.

Rua continued to slow and Jones began to pile up the points on the feet too.

Telegraphed kicks turned into easy takedowns for Jones and while Jones was not working aggressively for a finish, it seemed as though Rua's job now was to survive.

The half guard continued to be case of Rua desperately looking for sweeps and Jones' elbows snicker-snacking across Rua's face whenever a break in the action presented itself.

Rua fought back to full guard, where he could more effectively clinch Jones, but this was the position from which Jones had done his best work in the UFC so far. Posturing up, Jones reached back to tap Rua's right leg, before dropping a cracking left hand on Rua's uncovered jaw.

This was the beginning of the end for Rua, the elbows began raining in and he attempted to pushed Jones away and return to his feet, but he found himself trapped along the fence. A final body shot came in and Rua's legs folded underneath him, a sickening knee strike rose through Rua's guard as he fell. Herb Dean called off the fight and the UFC had its youngest champion to date.

Five years have passed since that night in New Jersey and what has changed? Like any passing of the torch, time has allowed both men's stories to play out and has determined that the bout was a case of one star in his ascendancy meeting another on his way down. Rua has gone 4-5 since the Jones bout and has never come close to recapturing the form that he embodied against Liddell and Machida. Meanwhile Jones had proven that he was the real deal but he was far from a finished product. The spins became less frequent and better hidden and the right hand leads and swings were replaced with scientific, piston like straight strikes. Until being stripped of the title in answer to his increasingly destructive behavior in October of 2015, Jones ruled the UFC light heavyweight division with an iron fist.

For Jones, the bout proved a stylistic watershed. This was the last time we saw the leaping, spinning, position sacrificing Jon Jones at front and center. In his next bout against the powerful banger, Quinton Jackson, Jones was ruthless in his use of his reach and kicks to control the distance and deny Jackson even fleeting chances where he was willing to simply give them away to Rua. After that it was drawing and countering the lunges of the wily Lyoto Machida, and so on.

Jones is currently slated to fight Daniel Cormier at UFC 197 for the UFC light heavyweight title which was taken from him. A lot could happen between now and then, but it is probably time to start getting cautiously excited for the return of perhaps the greatest fighter in MMA to date.