AMADI: Mirrored paths of Lyoto Machida and Jon Jones to UFC gold should temper UFC 135 expectations

By: Jason Amadi, MMATorch Columnist

A fighter's ability to trounce lower level guys is usually a pretty good indicator of how good they are. If you subscribe to this idea, then performances against Stephan Bonnar, Matt Hamill, Brandon Vera, and Ryan Bader probably indicate that Jon Jones is an elite fighter. And Jon Jones is most certainly an elite fighter. However, plowing through the lower and even mid-tier of the light heavyweight division doesn't suggest much of anything in regards to how good Jon Jones is relative to other elite fighters at 205 pounds.

Undefeated fighters being expected to rule the light heavyweight division isn't anything new. Most seem to be so caught up in the excitement over Jon Jones that they tend to forget the other fighter who was recently undefeated, untouchable and captured light heavyweight gold, Lyoto Machida.

Two years ago, Lyoto Machida was every bit as fawned over as Jon Jones is now. Machida was never challenged en route to his first UFC title shot, and in fact he never even lost a round. Machida was so elusive and so good at dictating distance that he never got touched. When Machida finally got his crack at then UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Rashad Evans, he destroyed him. Evans went into that fight with the worst possible approach to fighting Machida, and he paid the price. Lyoto Machida looked so dominant that after the bout, MMA Live analyst and UFC fighter Kenny Florian said that Machida was "two years ahead" of the light heavyweight division.

That was of course, until he met up with Mauricio "Shogun" Rua at UFC 104. At the time, "Shogun" was just building up steam after a lackluster start to his UFC career, and people thought he was going to get steamrolled by Machida. Prior to this bout, Dana White released statistics indicating that Lyoto Machida was the "least hit fighter in MMA history." I won't interrupt the Jon Jones comparison by going into detail about who came out on top in one of the more controversial decisions in MMA history, but suffice to say at the end of this bout, the aura around Lyoto Machida was gone.

The biggest takeaway from the brief "Machida Era" is that following the destruction of the incumbent Light Heavyweight Champion, Lyoto Machida was untouchable and no one could even imagine him dropping a round, let alone a fight. One fight later, he was just another elite light heavyweight.

Fast forward two years, and this story mirrors Jon Jones' rise almost perfectly. The dominant streak, the brutal victory over the champion, and the title defense against a battle tested former champion all reek of "Machida Era." To make things even creepier, UFC 135: Jones vs. Rampage is exactly 23 months removed UFC 104: Machida vs. Shogun. All Jon Jones is missing to complete the Lyoto Machida story is a loss.

Obviously MMA fans tempering their expectations for a dominant fighter is a bridge too far, but surely someone out there has to realize that Jones being a 7 to 1 favorite over a top shelf competitor like Quinton "Rampage" Jackson is a bit too much. Likewise, ranking Jones #3 pound-for-pound and calling for his participation in legacy fights are a bit too soon for a fighter just coming into his own.

As we saw with Lyoto Machida, just because you haven't been in a bad spot doesn't mean you can't be put in one.� Similarly, just because you haven't been hit doesn't mean you can't be knocked into oblivion by a massive right hand. Regardless of the outcome this Saturday night, Jon Jones will still be an elite fighter.

Jones' ability to crush good fighters is no longer in question; however whether or not he can dominate the dominators of the sport long-term remains to be seen.
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Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/amadis_take/article_10599.shtml

Rory Singer