UFC 128 Storylines

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It will go down as one of the seminal UFCs, with a changing of the guard and, perhaps, the beginning of an era. But what Saturday night’s card showcased was plenty of interesting plotlines across multiple divisions.

Besides Jon Jones’ destruction of Mauricio “Shogun” Rua to wrest the light heavyweight title, Urijah Faber made his UFC debut while lightweight Jim Miller plowed through another victim.

Here’s five storylines that emerged from UFC 128.

Jon Jones’ marketability: a new level

As though dominating a proven champ and giving a humble post-fight interview weren’t enough, at the UFC postfight news conference Jones told fans how he and trainers Greg Jackson and Mike Winklejohn collared an alleged purse-snatcher in Patterson, N.J., the morning of the fight.

Jones’ performances in the Octagon have been breathtaking displays. Outside the cage, he’s impressively composed and mature, an engaging blend of confidence tempered by humility. He’s pretty much a marketer’s dream, and should generate huge attention as an endorsement vehicle, as well as an ideal representative for the sport itself.

The distractions and obligations that come with the onslaught of attention at this level -- one few athletes ever achieve, and even fewer can manage adequately -- are often as tough as the fights you’ve got to win to stay there.

Given Jones’ trajectory and how seamlessly he’s fulfilled even the highest expectations, it makes you wonder where he will flatten out and eventually look mortal.

Personally, I think the stars and conditions have aligned as such to make Jones the Oscar De La Hoya of MMA. Well, scratch that, because it appears that Jones can actually win the big fights convincingly.

Faber-Cruz: all systems go

The smaller weight classes get, the more build-up they need to generate attention and traction in the public eye. With the WEC merger and the addition of feather and bantam weight classes, the UFC needed to start its first title bouts here with a bang.

With champ Dominick Cruz waiting to avenge his only loss, Faber remains the UFC’s biggest star under 155 pounds, and the matchup is a good one.

There’s no confirmation yet as to rumors that both may host an upcoming season of “The Ultimate Fighter” to build their showdown, but it would be a nice hat-tip to the little guys if they were given the shot. Given their mutual antipathy, it’s a great promotional angle, and a fight that fans will care about. And it gets the bantamweight division the final jump-start it will need to become a recurring storyline; one worth paying attention to, for the fans.

It’s also one hell of a fight. In their first match, Cruz was a green, 9-0 prospect thrown into a WEC featherweight title shot. He was submitted after a lively-if-brief tussle. Since then, he’s transformed into perhaps the most elusive stick-and-move stylist in the game, showcasing angles galore, backed up with solid takedown defense and conditioning.

Faber will have five rounds to figure Cruz out, and it’ll be interesting to see what the odds are. I’ll guess that Faber comes off as a modest favorite in the 7-5 range, but it’s a great fight and one any fan will want to watch.

Will Miller be left waiting in the wings?

After reeling off his seventh win in a row, Jim Miller sits high atop the crowded lightweight division. With Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard fighting their third bout at UFC 130 May 28, the victor of the Clay Guida-Anthony Pettis match, slated for June 4, gets the next title shot.

That’s a lot of moving parts in the equation for Miller to sit around and wait for a shot, which would come no earlier than this fall. Considering the likelihood of a draw in either Maynard-Edgar or Pettis-Guida, or a super-close/controversial decision in either of those two or the eventual showdown between the winners, and I think it might be better to keep Miller busy.

A lot of fans were disappointed with the draw in Edgar-Maynard II because it forced Pettis to instead fight Guida instead of giving him a title shot, but the obvious counter to that was if he was worthy of a title shot, then he should be able to beat a tough contender like Guida. The same logic should apply to Miller, especially as he keeps improving with each fight. Once the quartet of Edgar/Maynard/Pettis/Guida creates a solidified challenger, a slew of awesome
matchups awaits. He’ll be right in the mix.

Ironically, I think the big winner of the Edgar-Maynard draw was Pettis. He’s a mere 24 years old, and that delay gave him a few months to keep improving. When you’re that young, a few months is a big chunk of time. Ask Jon Jones.

“Sugar” not sweet on title shot situation

It was expectable there would be some tense moments if Jones beat Rua, and the postfight interview between Rashad Evans and Bones, nicely facilitated by Joe Rogan, was rife with weird tension. Clad in a dapper suit, Evans declared he’d fight Jones, in the same manner your teenaged son agrees to do a weekend’s worth of lawn work. Jones looked equally enthused.

This is when fighters really are “friends.” The manufactured “friends” premise that delayed Tito Ortiz-Chuck Liddell bout (where Ortiz maintained they had a pact to never fight, something Liddell steadfastly denied) does not apply here. These two have trained, sweat and bled together.

However, in a world of finite resources, fighters should know going into the profession that the risk of facing a friend is something that’s part of the profession, particularly at the world-class level, where a handful of trainers, coaches and camps exists that could ostensibly generate that level of talent.

It’s no small accident that camps like Greg Jackson’s, American Top Team, and Team Alpha Male create a huge influx of contenders; osmosis and proximity to talent while building your own is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

However, Evans was nonplussed, and explained as much via Twitter after the bout:

“...I decided to leave Greg because I felt like he didn’t have my best interest anymore. Greg is not the same coach he use 2 b.” (sic).

He also aired his feelings in a video interview with Karyn Bryant. Ironically, in a postfight interview with Sherdog, Jackson said he’d refrain from coaching either guy in the upcoming Jones-Evans matchup.

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