NEWARK, N.J. – Jon Jones is the UFC light heavyweight champion, and it wasn’t even close.
Jones overwhelmed legendary champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua on Saturday at the Prudential Center in Newark to grab the belt and complete a meteoric rise to the top of the UFC.
Also at UFC 128, New Jersey-based fighters went 2-3, with Jim Miller and Nick Catone scoring victories while Dan Miller, Ricardo Almeida and and Kurt Pellegrino dropped decisions.
Jones will now face Jackson’s MMA teammate Rashad Evans in his first title defense. Evans’ injury opened a spot for Jones to get into this match in the first place. Previously, the teammates had said they would not face one another.
“We are teammates, and we sparred many days,” Jones said. “But this is my dream and I have to do exactly what I have to do.”
“Great performance out there,” Evans said. “I guess you should never say never, right?”
Jones completed his destruction of Rua at 2:37 of the third round. He was completely dominant in every aspect and never let the Brazilian unleash a single one of his trademark kicks.
“It feels so good,” said Jones, who thwarted a robbery in Newark earlier in the day. “It’s a dream come true.”
“I have to congratulate him, he was better than me,” Rua said through an interpreter. “He was a very tough guy, a very tough fighter with great ground work.”
Through two rounds, the only thing about Rua that was in championship form was his heart and a chin of granite that took Jones’ best shots. The game champion attempted a knee bar in the early going of the third round but was not successful and ended up on his back in half guard, forced to defend the lethal ground-and-pound of the Endicott, N.Y. native and the favorite of the home crowd.
It was the beginning of the end.
Rua managed to get to his feet under a rain of strikes, but that spelled the end, as he ate a knee that helped pummel away his belt away. Referee Herb Dean waved it off after Jones crumpled Rua with a left to the body, and a new era began.
Jim Miller did what he needed to do to remain in the mix for the UFC lightweight title.
Miller, of Sparta, scored an impressive third-round TKO of previously unbeaten Kamal Shalorus and then asked what else he needed to do for a shot at the belt.
“Is that all I have to do?” Miller said. “That’s seven in a row in arguably the toughest division in the UFC. I’m ready (for the title shot).”
Miller was in complete control by the third round. His crisp striking led to a big left that buckled the stout former Olympic wrestler from Iran. With Shalorus in trouble and posturing for a takedown, Miller smashed him with a left knee that appeared could have broken Shalorus’ nose and essentially ended the fight.
“I’ve been waiting for that,” Miller said of the knee.
It was a night of mixed emotions for the Miller family. Jim Miller’s victory came only minutes after his older and heavier brother, Dan, lost a unanimous decision to Nate Marquardt. The Miller brothers fight out of AMA Fight Club in Whippany.
A late opponent change did not seem to affect Marquardt’s game plan at all as he cruised to a unanimous decision victory over Dan Miller, also of Sparta.
Marquardt had his opponent switched from Yoshihiro Akiyama, who stayed behind in his native Japan after the natural disaster there. Miller stepped up from the preliminary portion of the card and was a game opponent, but had trouble handling Marquardt’s top game.
Miller has come up just short in decision defeats to middleweight contenders Marquardt, Chael Sonnen and Demian Maia, in addition to the rising Michael Bisping. Marquardt rebounded after losing two of his previous three fights.
Miller was fighting with a heavy heart, as Saturday would have been the second birthday of his late daughter, who died shortly after birth in 2009.
"The emotion of it kind of hit me afterward," Jim Miller said, referring to the thought of his late niece. "Once the adrenaline died down it really hit me."
Dominick Cruz, get ready. The only man to beat you is coming after your bantamweight title.
Urijah Faber scored a unanimous decision victory over former champ Eddie Wineland to all but secure a title shot with Cruz.
“I want that UFC belt,” Faber said. “Hide the kids, hide your wife, I’m coming to get it.”
Faber won 29-28 on all three judges’ cards. He rallied to win the final two rounds after losing the first.
“I felt pretty good,” Faber said. “Eddie is really tough. He caught me off guard coming out with the clinch. He’s a really good guy and has a great future.
“You don’t know how fast they are or how powerful they are, so I was trying to gage that. I’d like to get the finish.”
Faber is the former WEC champ at 145 pounds, a weight at which he handed the only career loss to Cruz, who carried the bantamweight title to the UFC after defending the WEC belt against Faber’s teammate, Joseph Benavidez.
Brendan Schaub turned out Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic’s lights, knocking him out at 3:44 of the fourth round of their heavyweight match.Schaub earned $70,000 for knockout of the night.
As the third round moved on, Schaub wrestled down Filipovic twice in a minute. “Cro Cop” got back to his feet with 2:42 left, in need of a rally to win. But it was Schaub who unleashed big right that knocked Filipovic cold, ending the fight. Referee Herb Dean sprinted in and got to Schaub just fast enough to prevent one more blow.
“Not bad,” Schaub said. “I really gotta thank Dana White and Joe Silva. It was my birthday yesterday.”
White said afterward that this was the end of Filipovic in the Octagon.
Luiz Cane looked like his old self in beating down Eliot Marshall.
Cane came after Marshall from the opening bell and finished him with ground strikes at 2:15 of the first round of their light heavyweight match. When Marshall could not hit a takedown, he had no answer for the southpaw’s power strikes. Marshall did his best to cover up but Cane was relentless.
“I wanted this win so bad,” said Cane. “I trained so much, (after) I lost two fights in a row. That’s the result.”
In the fight of the night, Edson Barboza pulled out a victory over Anthony Njokuani in the final seconds, connecting on a spinning back kick to the head, grabbing a close round of their lightweight match.
Barboza scored a 29-28 decision on the cards of all three judges, but it appeared like Njokuani had a slight edge heading into the last 30 seconds. Barboza scored a takedown, but Njokuani got up as the claps for the final 10 seconds occurred. Barboza then landed the kick that sealed the fight.
Mike Pyle loves to go into his opponents' backyards and win fights.
Pyle stuffed Almeida’s takedowns and was aggressive to the point where he was the choice in a close decision in a battle of veteran welterweights.
Pyle, who beat England's John Hathaway in London, won 29-28 on all three judges’ cards, although the scores were announce incorrectly after the fight. Pyle threw down Almeida, of Hamilton Township, in the first and third rounds, and although Pyle did not establish position on the ground, he kept Almeida’s lethal Brazilian jiu jitsu game in check, halting his takedowns by using the fence.
Gleison Tibau scored a split-decision victory over Belmar's Pellegrino, winning 29-28 on two judges' cards and losing by the same score on the other.
Benavidez took a little while to get going but finally took over in the second round, getting the necessary takedowns to control Ian Loveland and keep him at bay en route to a unanimous decision victory.
Catone, of Brick, scored a unanimous decision victory over Constantinos Philippou, giving New Jersey its first win of the night.
Catone took down the Long Island product and used his top game to control and pound Philippou, who came in on six days' notice when Dan Miller was moved from this fight into the pay-per-view portion of the event to fight Marquardt. Catone won 30-27 on all the judges' cards.
There was a second knockout of the night bonus and it went to Erik Koch, who stunned Rafael Assuncao with a heavy right hand for a straight knockout at 2:21 of the first round of their featherweight bout that kicked off the event.
Koch floored Assuncao, who never got up and was laid out for another few minutes. A stretcher was brought out, but Assuncao was finally able to leave on his own power.
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