Rewatched the fight and observed...

[Graceland]

Just rewatched the fight and observed:

1.The fact that DC didn't score early td's and dominate Jones in the clinch made me overlook how close it was.

2. As of the third round, DC was outlanding Jones by 86 to 81 significant strikes.

3. A key to Jones success in the clinch game was wrist control. That aikido wrist lock throw in round two from DC was beautiful, but otherwise, he could not free that arm. Seagal, where you at?

4. I'd give DC the final round due to the take down. Nothing much happened in that round, but Jones had clinch control. I agree with White, Herb Dean should have stepped in, that was wall and stall at its' worst.

4. Wall and stall aside, DC also outgrappled Jones in the fifth, there are many beautiful details if you look closely.

5. Neither of the fighters were in any danger at any point in the fight. Nobody got beat up. All the trash talking about killing eachother and whooping asses was ridiculous.

6. The corner made a difference. Greg Jackson is a master at calming Jones down between rounds, prepping him up. I saw quite the opposite in DC's corner, but then again he was losing the fight. I don't think they used the right strategy to prep him up mentally though.

7. Cardio won the fight.

 

[Phoenix Down]

Great observations.

 

[estranged]

It was that fking eyepoke man...

 

[quadrunner]

Great points TS, mixed with what Estranged said about how the eyepoke changed the momentum of the fight and you pretty much have the story of the fight.

 

[ErnestoRoost]

7. Cardio won the fight.

Agreed with everything except this.

Body blows won the fight. Nobody takes what Jones landed on the midriff of DC and finishes a fight strongly--particularly at LHW.

 

[JayElectra]

Most of those points are reasonable, I'd say. I don't give Cormier the 5th, though. I score that 10-10 or give it barely to Jones. Neither did enough to earn the round outright, really, but Jones was at least slightly busier with his striking so if I was going to give it to anyone, I'd give it to Jones. Your point about the perceptions going in skewing the understanding of what actually happened is important. Since many thought Cormier was going to dominate Jones in the wrestling, anything less than that was viewed as a massive victory for Jones. The only round where the grappling was truly one sided was the 4th round.

 

[KantoTerror]

Just another theory from a hater. Cardio wasn't the issue for DC. Jones body punches and knees were big factors. TS like any other hater trying to discredit Jones in the guise of DC having bad cardio. LoL. Hate to break it to you....Aaaand stiiilll!

 

[Karelinator]

Yeah, good thread, but can't agree about 5th round either.

Throw was cool, but outside of hitting those soft canvas with some velocity, nothing happened to Jones, rolled well and didn't gave up position for a second.

Other than that round was Jones in indeed minimal, but control, landing some weak strikes.

So he takes this if someone has to, otherwise likely 10-10.

 

[Post 2 Decision]

I've said it before and I'll say it again
Jones won every round except for the 2nd

 

[Karelinator]

Seagal, where you at?

Cormier wasn't aiming for the groin, he can only blame himself.

 

[Puss]

I've said it before and I'll say it again
Jones won every round except for the 2nd

This.

And cardio wasn't really the problem for DC, it was more the body shots from Jones.

 

[daprodigal2]

cormier didn't land 86 significant strikes total for the entire fight. his total was 58 significant strikes and 78 total strikes landed. compared to jones 92 and 126.

cormier clearly won the 2nd round IMO. he got in close and landed some big shots on jones. cormier came out too slow in the 1st and jones was able to outwork him in that round and cormier did the same in the 3rd round.

jones won rounds 4 and 5 by a wide margin.

cormier allowed jones to control the tempo from the beginning of the fight. outside of the 2nd round, jones was able to dictate the fight. both were visibly gassed going into the 4th, but jones dug deeper and did what all great champions do in the championship rounds.

the judges got the score right for once, 4 rounds jones, 1 cormier.

 

[JayElectra]

Just another theory from a hater. Cardio wasn't the issue for DC. Jones body punches and knees were big factors. TS like any other hater trying to discredit Jones in the guise of DC having bad cardio. LoL. Hate to break it to you....Aaaand stiiilll!

No, cardio was an issue for both of them, hence the terrible 5th round. Jones handled it a lot better in the 4th round as Cormier admitted to take the round off in order to keep something in the tank for the 5th, but both mustered very little in the 5th. Both did decent body work, actually. Jones did more, but Cormier landed body kicks and body punches in tight and most importantly, both fought at a very high pace in an extremely grueling fight. There have been much greater body attacks than what Jones put on Cormier in the history of combat sport and fighters don't invariably gas from them. Fighters do tend to gas from fights as grueling as that one, though.

 

[Jojofan]

It was that fking eyepoke man...

Meh, it was one and it didn't even go into his eye. If you see it in slow motion DC closes his eye before the finger can go in and ends up on his closed eye lid.

 

[BTKxClinch]

Agreed with everything except this.

Body blows won the fight. Nobody takes what Jones landed on the midriff of DC and finishes a fight strongly--particularly at LHW.

THIS, drives me nuts how DC fading after the 3rd is simply being blamed on poor cardio without crediting Jones masterfully attacking the body every chance he got, constantly taking those hits kills your cardio

 

[Khabib Fan]

Pretty good analysis. Plus, close rounds will always go to the champion.

 

[Jojofan]

No, cardio was an issue for both of them, hence the terrible 5th round. Jones handled it a lot better in the 4th round as Cormier admitted to take the round off in order to keep something in the tank for the 5th, but both mustered very little in the 5th. Both did decent body work, actually. Jones did more, but Cormier landed body kicks and body punches in tight and most importantly, both fought at a very high pace in an extremely grueling fight. There have been much greater body attacks than what Jones put on Cormier in the history of combat sport and fighters don't invariably gas from them. Fighters do tend to gas from fights as grueling as that one, though.

Agreed a lot of clinch work and hand fighting going on as well as body shots from both guys. Honestly I'm not sure what DC could do at this point to beat jones considering he came out with what seemed like a solid game plan, but didn't have enough in the gas tank to keep it going beyond 3 rounds. Also despite executing what he wanted to do (for the most part) DC still lost 2 of the first 3 rounds before he completely gassed.

 

[Karelinator]

It honestly didn't seem to me that DC really 'gassed' either.

It really seemed more that after Jones managed to snatch that TD in particular, he just completely lost his 'riddum' so to speak.

Couldn't find proper distance nor hold in the clinch anymore.

Jones just started to be one step ahead.

 

[dmwalking]

Just rewatched the fight and observed:

1.The fact that DC didn't score early td's and dominate Jones in the clinch made me overlook how close it was.

2. As of the third round, DC was outlanding Jones by 86 to 81 significant strikes.

3. A key to Jones success in the clinch game was wrist control. That aikido wrist lock throw in round two from DC was beautiful, but otherwise, he could not free that arm. Seagal, where you at?

4. I'd give DC the final round due to the take down. Nothing much happened in that round, but Jones had clinch control. I agree with White, Herb Dean should have stepped in, that was wall and stall at its' worst.

4. Wall and stall aside, DC also outgrappled Jones in the fifth, there are many beautiful details if you look closely.

5. Neither of the fighters were in any danger at any point in the fight. Nobody got beat up. All the trash talking about killing eachother and whooping asses was ridiculous.

6. The corner made a difference. Greg Jackson is a master at calming Jones down between rounds, prepping him up. I saw quite the opposite in DC's corner, but then again he was losing the fight. I don't think they used the right strategy to prep him up mentally though.

7. Cardio won the fight.

I disagree with both point #4's. Cormier barely did any striking in that round. All he had was a slam that resulted in nothing. And his glimmer of wrestling technique still resulted in nothing. It doesn't count as winning the grappling if you got no result from it. It's like saying a guy won the striking exchange for missing a tornado kick only because the other guy was only jabbing.

Otherwise, I agree.

 

[HHJ]

.3 isnt talked about enough