Jon "Bones" Jones has certainly done it.
With Rashad Evans sidelined, his win on Saturday night at UFC 126 has earned him a title shot vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua at UFC 128.
Jones has quickly busted out onto the UFC scene riding one of the biggest hype trains.
No matter where you go, there is talk of this young 23-year-old born in Rochester, New York. Not surprisingly, Jones is also the most impressive athlete in his family. His brother, Arthur, was a fifth-round pick of the Baltimore Ravens in the 2010 NFL Draft and his other brother, Chandler, is a defensive lineman at the University of Syracuse.
Jones possesses a great set of hands accompanied by a devastating ground game. "Bones" is both a national junior college wrestling champion and a former high school state wrestling champion.
With a record of 6-1 in the UFC (the only loss coming as a DQ against Matt Hamill at UFC 100 for illegal downward elbows), Jones has rattled off three straight wins against the likes of Ryan Bader, Vladmir Matyushenko and Brandon "The Truth" Vera, with two of those wins coming by TKO and the win over Bader coming by way of submission.
Overall, Jones is 12-1 in his MMA career and has earned the respect of fans and fighters alike. Like Bader alluded to last night in his interview, Jones has some "flashy" moves. There's more though—out of his 13 overall fights, seven fights have gone only one round and only two have seen the fight go to the judges.
Now Jones has a huge test to prove himself. He gets to face off against one of the deadliest fighters in the light heavyweight division, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.
It's the worst kind of news for fellow light heavyweight Rashad Evans. Rashad has been sidelined after blowing his knee out in training, ending one of the more highly-anticipated fights of the year so far. Evans will be sidelined at least six-to-eight weeks with his knee in a brace.
Not a bad replacement for the fight.
On short notice, it's a great fight scheduled for UFC 128. It was a great showing by Jones, convincingly handling Bader the entire two rounds that the fight lasted, finishing him off with a nice guillotine choke.
Jones dominated the former Arizona State wrestler in every sense of the word.
After the fight ended, Joe Rogan proceeded to tell Jones he earned a title shot with Shogun at UFC 128 replacing the injured Evans. In joy, in glee, in just a sheer happy moment for the 23-year-old, Jones collapsed to the floor on his knees and was thankful for the opportunity.
Now, Jones will have until March 19th to prepare for his title shot with Rua. It should come as no surprise that Jones is already saying he is more than capable of taking this shot on such short notice.
“I usually spend my camp getting in shape, but I’m already in shape. [Coach Greg Jackson] wants me to calm down. He said he can't have me peak for six more weeks,” Jones said. “But I’m not taking time off. Maybe physically I'll take some time off, but I have a lot of studying to do. Six weeks is more than enough time, especially since I already have a six pack.”
Jones will surely be able to still provide a great fight against a fighter who is such a deadly striker and possesses knockout power in each of his limbs.
UFC 128 Main Event: Jones vs. Rua will be one of the better fights of the year.
Included with his title shot, Jones earned a sweet $75,000 bonus for his submission victory winning "Submission of the Night."
Jones has broken out with his great fighting ability and with a win against Shogun at UFC 128, could become the youngest UFC Light Heavyweight Champion ever.
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