The best and worst from UFC 235: Jones vs. Smith
UFC 235 is in the books and the most stacked show of 2019 thus far turned out to be an entertaining – if weird – one for the most part. Sure, it won’t go down as an all-time great card, and probably won’t even be considered up there with the best of the year come December, but there were definitely a few talking points.
We saw one title change and one champion defend in pretty dominant fashion, the debut of Ben Askren end in controversial fashion, and a bunch of other moments that were both cool and head-scratching.
Here are the best and worst moments from UFC 235: Jones vs. Smith.
#1 Best: Usman shows he’s the best at 170lbs
Kamaru Usman came into his UFC Welterweight title challenge against champion Tyron Woodley as an underdog, but by the end of the fight it was pretty clear exactly who the world’s best fighter at 170lbs was.
While ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ wasn’t able to secure a finish, there aren’t many times in UFC history that a reigning champion has been dominated quite as badly as Woodley was last night. Simply put, Usman outclassed him.
In my predictions article earlier in the week I questioned how Woodley – with his penchant for backing up and looking to counter-strike – would deal with Usman’s insane pressure game and powerful wrestling, and the answer turned out to be that he couldn’t deal with either at all.
From the opening moments of the fight right until the end, Usman was all over him, pinning him into the cage, beating him down with body shots and even taking Woodley down – something few people had ever done before.
If anything, the scores of 50-44, 50-44 and 50-45 didn’t do Usman’s dominance justice. Prior to the fight, Joe Rogan was attempting to push Woodley as the greatest Welterweight of all time. That’s obviously nonsense as Georges St-Pierre is clearly the only fighter worthy of that title, but if Usman can continue to dominate his future opponents in this way then he could easily find himself in the conversation soon. He’s an absolute monster.