This is a fight that should have happened many years ago and it would have been one of the biggest and historically important fights the UFC ever had. Now it's....this. Jones is only making it worse by preemptively ducking Apsinall so you can't even say "Well, this was the fight that was supposed to happen before Apsinall was the interim champ, so they will go through with this fight and then Apsinall will get his chance." It's just utter nonsense.
As far as the fight goes, for all the talk about Stipe being 42 and not fighting in 3.5 years (all of which is very valid), I've still got a ton of questions about Jones at HW, being 37 himself, and coming off serious injury. All I know is that I would be absolutely shocked if it's as easy as Gane was for Jones. You can go check my posts leading up to the Jones-Gane fight. I said if Jones wrestled, it would be an easy win for him. I didn't necessarily think he would sub him, especially so fast, but it was a clear...CLEAR...mismatch in that department. He doesn't have that against Stipe. Stipe's old. He'll probably be slow. He might get worn down if the fight goes into the later rounds. I just can't imagine him going out that quickly to anybody....OK, maybe if he fought Francis again he might get KO'ed quickly, but Jones doesn't have that kind of power. Never did.
Stipe is one of my favorite all time fighters and I can't stand Jones, so I'm obviously rooting for Stipe. Having a his Randy Couture moment on top of his accomplished career would be absolutely epic and make all this nonsense worth it. Seems pretty unlikely, though. I've got Jones by UD.
Charlie Olives - Chandler, sure. Why not? Should probably be a fun one again. I'd take Oliveira again since he has more ways to win, but he does get hit and Chandler hits hard.
Craig is a big jump up for Nickal. It will be interesting to see if Nickal tries to take him down given Criag's BJJ or if it will cancel out and turn into a boxing match. I don't really have a sense on how it would go in either case.
Not much interest in the rest.
