UFC 182: Did Jones vs. Cormier Live Up to Hype?

The monumentally hyped light heavyweight title fight between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier was every bit as gritty and exciting as advertised.

Thousands of fans piled into the sold-out MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas Saturday night for UFC 182, which featured arguably the biggest grudge match in UFC history. Months of excessive trash talk and an unexpected media brawl cemented the light heavyweight tilt's blockbuster status.

History has shown that bouts enveloped in grandiose pre-fight drama typically end up being pay-per-view duds. There was some concern that Jones and Cormier could turn into a snoozer.

Even UFC President Dana White expected more of a feeling-out process early in the fight."Well, they talked all this trash and everything that led up to it," White told journalist Ariel Helwani in an interview on Fox. "I thought there was going to be a big feeling-out process in the first round. It's a five-round title fight, it means everything. They went at it from the first bell to the fourth bell."

Jones came out early in the fight and set the tone with a takedown on Cormier, a former Olympic wrestler. Cormier responded in the next couple of rounds by closing the distance and roughing Jones up in the clinch with short hooks and uppercuts.

The tide began to turn in the fourth round as Cormier slowly began to fade from a tireless work rate along with multiple kicks and knees to the body. Both men were on autopilot by the time the fifth round started, but Jones was clearly the fresher fighter. He flipped the script on Cormier by closing the distance and busting the much shorter contender up with knees to the body and dirty boxing.

Twitter lit up with excitement from other UFC fighters as the back-and-forth battle played out.


Source http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2320001-ufc-182-did-jones-vs-cormier-live-up-to-hype