The UFC has reserved argubaly the very best fighter in the world for a quick-turnaround bout, and I’ll offer my thoughts on this new matchup in the present MMA odds and ends.
UFC 235 vs. Anthony Smith, jon Jones UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones will put his belt on the line against Anthony Smith at UFC 235, which takes place March 2 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. TMZ was the first to report about the bout, with UFC president Dana White confirming the information together. The holdup now is that Jones still needs to receive his license in the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which should occur later this month later he has a hearing about his controversial failed drug test for picograms before UFC 232.
The news of Jones vs. Smith being reserved for UFC 235 came along with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani reporting that Kamaru Usman is set to combat UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley at UFC 235 in the co-main event. I wrote about that matchup in last week’s MMA odds and ends, which you can read here. The cole’s notes version of my thoughts on this bout are that Woodley deserves to become favored based on the fact he is the defending champion, but that I provide Usman a great chance to win the title.
So far as Jones vs. Smith goes, it is clearly the ideal fight to book and it’s good news the UFC is creating this fight instead of Jones against Corey Anderson, which would not have been a competitive fight. At least Smith gets the ending ability to make matters interesting, though Jones will presumably still enter this fight as a gigantic betting favorite due to his unbelievable album and how great he looked in his return bout against Alexander Gustafsson in UFC 232, which he won via third-round KO.
Jones (23-1, 1 NC) has an incredible 17-1, 1 NC record in the Octagon which includes triumph over Daniel Cormier, Gustafsson double, Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans, Mauricio”Shogun” Rua, Chael Sonnen and Vitor Belfort. By all reports, he has one of the best resumes we’ve ever seen in the sport and he’s appeared pretty much unstoppable in his MMA career save to get an extremely controversial DQ defeat to Matt Hamill nearly a decade ago currently in December 2009. Smith (31-13) is among the most-improved fighters in the UFC. After racking up a 4-3 record as a middleweight through two separate stints in the UFC, Smith has exploded into stardom as a light heavyweight since moving up a weight class in the middle of 2018. He has defeated Shogun, Evans and at his very last conclusion Volkan Oezdemir all by end, making a title shot for his unbelievable run at 205lbs.
As great as Smith has looked at light heavyweight, it’s still impossible to favor him to conquer Jones, that has revealed hardly any flaws in his game since making his UFC debut over a decade ago. I would look for Jones to be around a -500 favored for this battle, and contemplating Smith has been finished 14 days in his profession there is a fantastic opportunity Jones stops him in this fight.
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