The UFC needs to make room in an already talented light heavyweight division for Jon “Bones” Jones after his explosive victory over Brandon “The Truth” Vera during last night’s UFC on Versus 1. The debut event at the 1st Bank Arena in Broomfield, Colorado was marked by a mix of surprises and disappointments. Jones’ impressive victory was a spectacular end to an event that had a rather lackluster beginning.

Brandon “The Truth” Vera VS Jon “Bones” Jones

Dominant is the best word to describe Jones’ performance. It took little effort for Jones to hip-toss Vera to the mat. Once there, Jones landed a flurry of left handed strikes. To Vera’s credit, just as quickly as he was taken down, he shot right back up after kicking Jones off him. Vera was then forced into a clinch fighting position when Jones backed him up into the cage. No doubt wary of Vera’s strong Muy Thai background, Jones focused on avoiding a stand-up fight with the former heavyweight. Before Vera could turn the pace of the match to his favor, he was once again taken down by Jones with even more ease than before.

Lying on his back, Vera desperately tried to fight Jones off with an elbow strike. Jones answered with a series of elbows to the head. Vera retaliated with a kick to the jaw. Since Jones had one knee on the ground, referee Herb Dean deemed it illegal and deducted one point from Vera. After rubbing his jaw and shaking off the stars circling around his head, Jones didn’t miss a beat when action resumed in the combatants original position on the floor.

With a sound that could be confused with the crack of thunder, a Jones elbow connected with Vera’s right eye. Trying to roll away to avoid further abuse, Vera attempted to protect himself by going into a turtle position. But, Vera’s defense proved futile after a series of fierce punches from Jones forced the referee to call a halt to the fight at the 3:19 mark and award Jones with a TKO in the first round.

Still very much wet behind the ears, this win nonetheless earns the 22-year-old Jones a place among the big shots in his division. Jones’ rather unorthodox style will be put to the test now that he is climbing the ladder in the light heavyweight division. Jones is definitely hungry, but I’m not convinced that he’ll continue to impress us considering that the UFC light heavyweight division boasts astounding fighters like Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Rashad Evans and Anderson Silva.

Junior “Cigano” dos Santos VS Gabriel “Napao” Gonzaga

Legions of fight fans in the MMA stronghold of Brazil were no doubt glued to their television sets to witness their two native sons, heavyweight fighters Junior “Cigano” dos Santos and Gabriel “Napao” Gonzaga collide in the co-main event. This was a much anticipated showdown. with so much being made of the grappler Gonzaga’s boast that he could outfight former kickboxing champion dos Santos standing up.

It was put up or shut up for Gonzaga and in little under a minute, strikes were thrown in the match. Contact began when Gonzaga landed a low kick and Dos Santos hit back with a straight left to Gonzaga’s body. Despite his prediction that he was going to go toe-to-toe with dos Santos in a stand-up fight, Gonzaga went for a takedown, managing to trip dos Santos, but he was not able to control him on the ground.

Dos Santos fought back with two straight lefts and scored some midsection shots. After both men attempted kicks to the head that missed, Gonzaga caught dos Santos’ right fist with his face, and attempted a left leg kick to the body. His last of the fight. The kick was countered by a perfectly executed left hook by dos Santos. Gonzaga hit the floor and dos Santos, smelling blood, went for the kill. Gonzaga was pummeled to unconsciousness by dos Santos’ double fisted assault before referee Josh Rosenthal stopped the fight at 3:53 in the first round.

The importance of this knockout victory for dos Santos cannot be ignored. This latest win is added to a stellar resume of victories for dos Santos. He has been blazing though competition with a level of ferocity that makes predictions of championship gold in his future all the more viable.

At this rate, a number one contender match with Cain Velasquez seems increasingly likely. The fact that dos Santos’ mentor, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira suffered a brutal defeat to Velasquez last year at UFC 110 gives the potential match the dramatic flair that promoters salivate over. Will dos Santos get the chance to avenge his mentor at UFC 116?

Lackluster Opening Matches

As I mentioned earlier, the thrills offered by the main events were countered with some unfortunate opening matches. UFC’s debut on Versus was marred by these matches which dragged down the first half of the program.

Opening the show were the middleweights Alessio “Legionarius” Sakara versus James “The Sandman” Irvin. The fight started off well enough with Sakara wasting no time getting into action. Despite slipping after landing a low kick on Irvin, Sakara was in fine form. Irvin landed a low kick of his own, but it failed to derail the flurry of strikes unleashed from Sakara. A spinning back fist by Sakara was followed by further kicks to the legs of Irvin.

The gifted boxer Sakara skillfully ducked Irvin’s punches and battered him with combos. Two straight left jabs to the body were followed by a right hand lead and left hook that caused Irvin to collapse. Sakara attempted to continue the assault with rapid fire punches onto his fallen opponent, but just as suddenly as the action started in this fight; it came to a screeching halt. Referee Josh Rosenthal pulled Sakara off Irvin. There was some confusion why at first, but it then became clear that Irvin’s right eye was closed shut. Irvin claimed that he got poked in the eye. The fans in attendance took the allegation at face value and showed their displeasure at Sakara. The replay clearly showed that Sakara hit Irvin with a closed fist. The punch had landed squarely on Irvin’s eye socket. Most likely, Sakara’s knuckle is what did the damage Irvin’s right eye. It is indeed an incredibly painful shot, but not illegal. Unfortunately for Irvin, the audience in Broomfield and the viewers at home, that punch ended the match. Sakara was awarded a TKO at 3:31 in the first round amidst a booing crowd that was obviously displeased by the anticlimactic ending. So much for Irvin’s debut as a middleweight.

Cheick Kongo VS Paul “The Headhunter” Buentello

Before you go off thinking every match last night ended in the first round, Cheick Kongo versus Paul “The Headhunter” Buentello managed to last three rounds to no one’s pleasure. Some rather cheesy moments made this a dreadful viewing experience. In fact, it ended up being the weirdest of the fights.

Buentello came out swinging, but Kongo tripped his opponent and backed him up into the fence. While there, Buentello unsuccessfully attempted a kimura twice while Kongo threw knees and punches. Boos began to rise from the audience as the pace became increasingly slower. Perhaps reacting to crowd dissatisfaction, Buentello trids to spice things up with a punching combo, but ended up injuring his hand in the process. Quickly claiming it was an “equipment” problem, Buentello had a ring physician pop his finger back into place and seemed more than eager to continue fighting. Kongo obliged and knocked Buentello to the floor. With zero action on the floor, referee Herb Dean stood them up, but Kongo took Buentello immediately back to the floor, unleashing a string of punches until Kongo was saved by the bell.

Kongo started round two with some kicks that got him nowhere and It was soon back to a short punching match between the two men. Buentello is a heavy hitter so Kongo brought him back to the ground, but It quickly become apparent that the ground was no man’s land for Buentello. Kongo was dominant in this round (as he was in the first one) but lost a point for an illegal knee to the head while Buentello was floored. The bout was restarted once Buentello recovered from the hit.

It was déjà vu all over again when the same scene repeated itself. This time it was obvious that Buentello saw the knee coming and tried to drop his knee to the floor in order to make that strike illegal. Referee Herb Dean, realizing this to be a cheap ploy by Buentello, didn’t penalize Kongo. Kongo got on Beuntello’s back and repeatedly hit his head till Dean stood them up due to the sheer boredom of it all. An uppercut from Kongo closed the round and further weakened Buentello. It was painfully obvious to the entire viewing audience and to Kongo that Buentello was helpless on the floor and he decided to finish him off with some ground and pound. Buentello was apparently also aware of how amazingly ineffective his ground game was, so he tapped out after Kongo landed some elbows to his thighs.

Yes, you read that correctly. Kongo won the bout by TKO at 1:16 of the third round. It must have been the first time ring announcer Bruce Buffer ever had the chance to say, “Winner by tap out due to strikes.” That’s not so much an actual submission than just plain old giving up, isn’t?

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