MMA ODDS AND ENDS FOR MONDAY: JON JONES VS. ANTHONY SMITH SET FOR UFC 235

The UFC has reserved argubaly the very best fighter in the world for a quick-turnaround bout, and I will offer my thoughts on this brand 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 in 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 news together. The holdup now is that Jones still needs to receive his license in the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which should happen later this month after he has a hearing regarding his controversial failed drug test for picograms before UFC 232.
The news of Jones vs. Smith being booked for UFC 235 came alongside ESPN’s Ariel Helwani reporting which Kamaru Usman is place to fight UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley at UFC 235 in the co-main occasion. 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 ideas on that bout would be that Woodley deserves to become favored based on the fact he is the defending champion, but I give Usman a fantastic chance to win the title.
So far as Jones vs. Smith goes, it’s obviously the ideal fight to book and it is good news the UFC is creating this fight instead of Jones contrary to Corey Anderson, that wouldn’t happen to be a competitive struggle. At least Smith gets the ending capability to make matters interesting, though Jones will still enter this fight as a massive betting favorite due to his unbelievable album and just how good he looked in his return bout against Alexander Gustafsson in UFC 232, he won via third-round KO.
Jones (23-1, 1 NC) has an unbelievable 17-1, 1 NC record in the Octagon which includes win over Daniel Cormier, Gustafsson twice, Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans, Mauricio”Shogun” Rua, Chael Sonnen and Vitor Belfort. By all accounts, he has among the greatest resumes we’ve ever seen in the sport and he has appeared pretty much unstoppable in his MMA career save for an extremely controversial DQ defeat to Matt Hamill almost a decade ago now in December 2009. Smith (31-13) is among the most-improved fighters in the UFC. After racking up a 4-3 document as a middleweight during two different stints in the UFC, Smith has exploded into stardom as a light heavyweight since moving up a weight class in the center of 2018. He’s defeated Shogun, Evans and at his last conclusion Volkan Oezdemir all by finish, earning a title shot for his incredible run at 205lbs.
As good as Smith has looked at light heavyweight, it is still impossible to favor him to beat Jones, that has revealed hardly any flaws in his game since making his UFC debut over a decade ago. I would search for Jones to be about a -500 favorite for this fight, and considering Smith has been completed 14 times in his career there’s a fantastic opportunity Jones stops him in this fight.
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