NEWARK, N.J. — If conventional wisdom is right, and Jon Jones becomes MMA’s transcendent figure, the one who brings the sport on a ride to the next level, 20 years from now, you’ll be telling your kids about the epic story of the day Jones won the belt.
It’s a hard-to-believe tale that might one day be part of a movie that people assume is fiction. But it began with Jones foiling a robbery and ended late in the evening of the night the earth saw its first supermoon in 18 years, with Jones vanquishing the battle-hardened champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in a third-round TKO so dominant, it bordered on ridiculous.
Jones controlled the action from the opening touch of gloves until referee Herb Dean pulled him off a downed Rua two minutes, 37 seconds into the third. According to Compustrike, Jones out-landed Rua 87-13, took him down twice, and landed 57 ground strikes to Rua’s zero.
NEWARK, N.J. —