Oxygen starvation: how Jones “strangled” Gan and won the heavyweight title, and Shevchenko sensationally lost to Grasso

Jon Jones is clearly not one of those fighters who needs to prove something in the world of mixed martial arts.

In March 2011, he knocked out Mauricio Rua and became the youngest UFC champion in history, and subsequently set a record for the number of wins in title fights.

If he decides to refuse to return to the cage after a three-year downtime and end his career right in March 2023, the American would still be destined for a place in the promotion's Hall of Fame and the title of one of the greatest athletes in MMA history.

But despite this, he decided to re-enter the octagon and put everything at stake in a duel with Cyril Gun.

It was extremely difficult to make any predictions for this fight.

On the one hand, Jones has not competed since January 2020 and has never fought at heavyweight.

And although he himself assured that he still continued to move as a representative of the division up to 93 kilograms, it was not worth taking his word for it.

Many fighters experienced a very painful change of category, and even if they managed to maintain speed, they noticeably lost stamina.

And it was this aspect that was important to John.

Of the last ten battles with his participation, seven at once lasted all the planned five rounds.

And it was reckless to believe that after such a long pause, the American would immediately try to put down the Frenchman, who had only once been knocked down.

On the other hand, the readiness of Gan himself to meet opponents of this level remained in question.

Previously, he had never fought an opponent of the caliber of Jones, and lost even to much less classy and skillful fighters.

The same Francis Ngannou is hardly drawn to the title of wagon, but even he looked stronger than Cyril, not only in the standing position, but also on the ground.

And in this aspect, John was a real expert.

The American himself openly called the Frenchman the most limited among the five strongest heavyweights and promised to deal with him unexpectedly easily.

However, Jones kept his word.

And even the blow he received in the groin in the very opening did not prevent him from doing this.

At the beginning of the second minute, he “started” with Gan, after 30 seconds he laid him on the canvas and instantly threw on the guillotine.

Pressed with his back against the net, Cyril could not do anything and was forced to knock.

Potentially the toughest battle of John's career lasted just 124 seconds.

Jones proved himself to be one of, if not the greatest fighters in history to become the eighth UFC champion in two divisions.

Before him, only a select few succeeded, and in the two most prestigious categories, only the legendary Randy Couture and Daniel Cormier, whose confrontation with John became a cult in MMA, achieved such success.

And now Bones is waiting for a duel with the strongest heavyweight in the history of the league, the record holder for the number of belt defenses, Stipe Miocic.

Dana White himself announced this the day before.

Overall, Valentina Shevchenko deserved to be compared to Jones.

Although her liability included defeats from Amanda Nunez and Liz Karmouche, but within the framework of the flyweight she reached no less heights than John did in light heavyweight.

By this time, the Kyrgyz athlete had a record seven belt defenses, and the last defeat was dated September 2017.

And few people expected Alexa Grasso to be able to break this series.

Although she had good boxing skills and “heavy” hands, she did not seem to be as comprehensively developed as Shevchenko.

This was confirmed by the quotes of bookmakers, on the basis of which Valentina emerged as a clear favorite.

True, ex-UFC champion in two divisions Henry Cejudo did not agree with this.

He called the Mexican the most difficult opponent in Bullet's career and predicted serious problems for the owner of the trophy if she decides to exchange with her opponent in her arms.

And confirmation of this was found already in the middle of the first round.

In a couple of exchanges of blows, Grasso turned out to be faster and scored with the most powerful hits, thanks to which she not only cut the bridge of her opponent's nose, but almost sent her to the canvas.

Shevchenko was shocked, but resisted and did not allow Grasso to build on her success.

Believing in herself, Alexa tried to consolidate her advantage with a pass to the legs, but was content with only a successful sweep without control.

Shevchenko was quickly made to understand that it would not be in her interests to arrange an uncompromising felling.

And she wisely used this information.

Starting from the second segment, she stopped focusing solely on striking and began to combine it with wrestling.

And it gave a result.

Only in the second five-minute period she twice transferred Grasso to the floor, and in the third she did it again.

Valentina seized the initiative and established control over the fight, but the alarm bells continued to come.

One of these was the sudden decision of the referee Jason Herzog to raise the girls to the rack from the stalls, although the Kyrgyz woman worked quite actively on the ground.

The second is Alexa's illegal kick, which the same referee ignored.

Everything was in favor of Shevchenko, who finally felt the distance and began to hit both jabs and power punches over and over again.

But excessive self-confidence played a cruel joke with her.

Being at the net, she decided to break through the body of the turntable, but gaped a little and allowed her opponent to take her back.

At one time, a similar element cost a trophy to Chris Weidman.

But if he never specialized in kickboxing, then Valentina was a real expert in this.

Grasso instantly climbed onto Shevchenko's back and closed the lock on her chin.

The situation did not seem hopeless, but Valentina was not able to unclench her opponent's hands and still allowed her to shift the grip towards the neck.

And 26 seconds before the end of the fourth round, she knocked, suffering a sensational defeat.

Immediately after the end of the fight, Shevchenko demanded an immediate revenge.

And it will be fair if the matchmakers grant her request - as they did in the case of Amanda Nunez, who lost to Julianne Peña in December 2021.

Subsequently, the Brazilian won a convincing victory and proved that she still remains the strongest in the lightest category.

The only question is whether Valentina can immediately regain her title or repeat the fate of Joanna Jendrzejczyk, who never managed to find the keys to Rose Namajunas.

Also, the tournament in Las Vegas was remembered for the bright triumph of Shavkat Rakhmonov, who “strangled” Jeff Neal at the end of the third round.

The Kazakhstani won for the 17th time in a row and remained undefeated.

And also the successful return of Cody Garbrandt at 61.2 kilograms, where he once ruled.

The defeat from Beneil Dariusz was closed by Mateusz Gamrot, however, the performance of the Pole can hardly be called dominant.

Jalyn Turner gave him a real fight and even knocked him down, and lost only by a separate decision of the judges.