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Imagine a tussle between a fox and a hedgehog. The fox is faster, smarter, more creative, with a wider variety of tools at his disposal. The hedgehog does one thing so well that the fox can never beat it.
On Sunday fight fans are treated to one of the rare occurrences in combat sports in the professional era: we get to see two undefeated fighters at their pinnacle fight it out for the right to call themselves the best in the world.
Fight fans, and indeed sports fans from around the world have lamented the politics of boxing that has allowed the two best fighters on the planet both in the same weight class stalk around each other for a better part of a decade.
It seems that in 2015 we may see the long-overdue super fight between the two highest paid sportsmen on the planet, Manny Pacquio and Floyd Mayweather. However there is a sour aftertaste as this should have been booked at least five years ago when both were at their peak.
The UFC quickly established itself into the combat sports market by doing the opposite of boxing. They stacked their cards and put on fights that the fans were desperate to see. But in its relatively short history, the UFC has rarely been in a position to promote a fight as compelling as the main card of UFC 183
Jon Jones is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. He currently drapes the UFC light heavyweight title around his 193 centimetre frame and has dispatched a list of light heavyweight former champions with such dismissive ease it seemed that he personally was announcing a new age of mixed martial artist.
At 27 years old he is just hitting his prime, and when this supreme athletic talent meets his freakish fight IQ and otherworldly creativity in the octagon, it is not surprising that most commentators speculate that is is simply a matter of time until he surpasses Anderson Silva to be considered the greatest of all time.
He looks simply unbeatable. But not according to Daniel Cormier.
The 2004 and 2008 Olympic athlete and NCAA All American wrestler is looking to become the Joe Frazier to Jones’ Ali. ‘DC’ tore through the Stikeforce heavyweights, knocking out Bigfoot Silva and manhandling former UFC champion Josh Barnett in the cage to win the Strikeforce Grand Prix. He then continued his relentless march up the heavyweight ladder in the UFC.
At 180 centimetres, DC was a small heavyweight who was a ball of seething aggression and power. His years as an Olympian and as the training partner of reigning heavyweight champ Cain Valesquez has made him the UFC’s equivalent of a Shaolin Monk. His sheer ruggedness, conditioning, power and tenacity has taken him to an MMA record of 15-0. He has not lost a round.
His inevitable drop to light heavyweight was punctuated with him tossing MMA legend Dan Henderson around the cage like a father playing with his eight-year-old son. He clearly has kept his freakish strength and the weight cut only seems to have made him hungrier.
These two may very well be the two baddest men on the planet. The build up has been more spite laden than even the promoters dreamed, with a brawl breaking out at the MGM Grand last year. These men genuinely do not like each other.
Jones has faced champions but none with the technical skill sets as advanced as Daniel Cormier or sheer physical strength of a man who throws around heavyweights with frightening ease. I expect the champ, like Ali, to try and stay on the outside and score with his speed, range and unpredictability to dazzle DC. Cormier’s supreme conditioning will have him bullocking forward like Frazier to pressure Jones and land his heavyweight killing hands and world class takedowns.
I think Jon ‘Bones’ Jones has met the hedgehog to his fox; a wall that he may break himself against.
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