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As the noise surrounding Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey’s UFC dominance dims, affording them an opportunity to lick their wounds, two quieter presences have the chance to step into the front line.If McGregor and Rousey are the UFCs star pupils, then Demetrious Johnson is the straight-A student and Jon Jones is the class rebel. Both Johnson and Jones have sat on top of the pound-for-pound rankings before and during the mania surrounding McGregor and Rousey and own the longest active winning streaks in the sport.Jones, whose only loss is a disputed disqualification, has won 12 on the spin (four behind the all-time record held by Anderson Silva) while Johnson has racked up nine in a row. They are a little-and-large combination with personalities that are worlds apart but skill-sets inside the cage that are only rivalled by each other. Jones endured his toughest night in 2013 against Alexander Gustafsson The lanky and languid Jones, nicknamed Bones on account of the height and reach that he maximises so ferociously, has rarely even tasted competitiveness in his remarkable career to date. Perhaps boasting the most stellar CV in the history of MMA, only a bizarrely illegal elbow strike in his 10th fight against Matt Hamill prevents him being unbeaten.Aged 23, Jones became the youngest UFC champion ever and his destruction of Mauricio Shogun Rua ushered in a new era of athleticism and craft in a light-heavyweight division previously crammed with brawlers. Since 2010, he has dispensed with Rampage Jackson, Lyoto Machida and Vitor Belfort who previously ruled at 205lbs before sweeping past rivals of his own generation. Demetrious Johnson (right) has twice beaten top flyweight rival John Dodson Johnson, meanwhile, was a middling bantamweight in those days. Over a foot shorter and 80lbs lighter than Jones, his Mighty Mouse moniker rang truer at the inauguration of the flyweight division four years ago. Competing at 125lbs (the smallest category), Johnson became the first champion and has outlasted each of the other nine UFC title-holders.Its a pleasure to watch Johnson, flyweight rival Neil Seery told Sky Sports. Hes just so, so good at his job. Hes the pound-for-pound best, I see him as that. Its my pleasure just to be mentioned alongside him. I believe Demetrious is better than Jones because of his movements and his transitions between striking and wrestling - hes the best fighter in the UFC Neil Seery Demetrious has people thinking he can strike - he throws combinations from crazy angles - but hes a phenomenal wrestler. Hes very good in the scrambles and his gas tank is second-to-none. Nobody knows what hes going to do next, and I think thats what sets him apart.I believe Demetrious is better than Jones because of his movements and his transitions between striking and wrestling - hes the best fighter in the UFC. People at two weight classes are trying to fight him because hes so good. Jones most recently defended his world title against Daniel Cormier Yet Johnson is No 2 in the official pound-for-pound listings behind Jones, despite his four-reign title reign making him the only current champion to reign for longer than 15 months. Jones continues at the top of the tree despite the self-destructive episodes that resulted in his light-heavyweight championship being stripped from him last year.Jones flashes of instability outside the cage appear to be his only obvious adversity, considering he already owns victories over six of his divisions top 10. At 28, he hasnt fought since January 2015 due to suspension and has missed a year of his athletic prime while he reconstructs his day-to-day life. Those who share his gym in Albuquerque, New Mexico, insist a newly-focused and calmer Jones is readying a return that should terrify current champion Daniel Cormier. I think Jones can return even better, I know so. Hes been very focused and dedicated - Ive seen him in the gym non-stop. Alistair Overeem Listen, he did some stupid stuff and it was a wake-up call for him - he took lessons from that and became a better person, Andrei Arlovski told Sky Sports. He is 100 percent a different person now. Im telling you, Ill bet my money he wins and becomes the new light-heavyweight champion.Alistair Overeem added: I think he can return even better, I know so. Hes been very focused and dedicated - Ive seen him in the gym non-stop. Hes determined to make a strong comeback. Both Arlovski and Overeem stress Jones remained a great training partner while he battled personal demons. Johnson will next defend his belt against Henry Cejudo Jones was set to challenge his greatest rival Cormier at UFC 197 for the belt that he only lost in a fight with the law, in a rematch after Bones handily won the first time. Cormiers injury means No 6 contender Ovince Saint Preaux will fight Jones on three weeks notice. Sharing the card, appropriately, is Johnson - the man so tiny he can go unnoticed until the first bell rings and he moves faster than a blink of the eye - who makes his eighth title defence against Olympic gold medal winner Henry Cejudo.Jones and Johnson have separate business to attend to, and their paths are unlikely to cross all evening at UFC 197. But each will know that, despite the colossal size differential between them, they are locked in a fight with each other to become the sports undisputed pound-for-pound No 1. McGregor & Rousey: What now? How will UFC star duo react to defeats?Also See:OSP steps in against JonesMcGregor & Rousey: What now?Danger ahead for UFC championsUFCWholesale Shoes . LUCIE, Fla. Replica Wholesale Shoes . Wall made the comment in a speech to a Regina business crowd that included Lesnar. The U.S. wrestler and retired mixed martial artist says he was visiting his brothers farm in Saskatchewan and decided he wanted to hear what the premier had to say. https://www.wholesaleshoesforcheap.com/yeezy-350-sale/ . McCarthy, a player who played some games in the second tier for Wigan at the start of this season, would go on to shine inside Evertons midfield, outplaying the man he was brought in to replace, on one of the grandest stages in English football. On Saturday, it was fitting that Manchester Uniteds most recent dagger into the chest was delivered by Frenchman Yohan Cabaye, a wonderfully gifted central midfielder who put on an outstanding effort for Newcastle at Old Trafford. Air Max 97 Sale .Y. -- Sabres forward Drew Stafford has witnessed plenty of turmoil during his eight seasons in Buffalo. Wholesale Shoes Website . "I wrote 36 on my sheet at the beginning of the game," the Cincinnati coach said, referring the yard line the ball would need to be snapped from.When Jared Ward was about halfway through the Olympic marathon in Rio, doubts started to creep into his head. He didnt feel good. Part of the pack he was in started to break away. Could he actually finish? Ward, a member of the U.S. Olympic team, was running only his fifth marathon ever and needed to find some way to get through the rest of the race.Not only did the 28-year-old Ward find a way to get through the mental challenges and finish, but he finished sixth overall -- in the Olympics -- in his fifth race.There were two keys for Ward to break through the doubt that could have cost him Olympic glory.The first was to think about the race in chunks -- getting through the next mile instead of trying to get through the entire race.The second was analytics.The chunking of a task is a well-known management strategy -- breaking huge projects down into small tasks that will be mentally less taxing and therefore more manageable. The use of analytics, though, particularly in the context of the Olympic marathon, is more novel.Given Wards rise, clearly he is not your typical runner. Dually inspired by his high school coaches and math teachers, Ward attended Brigham Young University to run cross country and study statistics. What Ward soon found out is that the BYU statistics department -- led by Dr. Gilbert Fellingham and Dr. Shane Reese -- has one of the top sports statistics groups in the country. BYU statistics alumni have worked for teams in the NFL and NBA as well as the U.S. Olympic Committee, and ESPNs sports analytics team.Fellingham took interest in Ward as both a student and an athlete, and began to encourage Ward to take a more analytical approach to his running. Wards BYU cross country coach, Ed Eyestone, also embraced this approach -- particularly when Ward used up his eligibility in cross country and turned his attention to marathons. Eyestone, as it happened, was a two-time U.S. Olympic marathoner who competed in 1988 (Seoul) and 1992 (Barcelona).At the urging of these mentors, Ward (who would become a BYU statistics professor himself) took both a macro and micro approach to the analytics of marathons.On the macro level, he looked at the research on marathon performance, and that data provided two important innsights: (1) elite marathoners run at a fairly constant pace -- they dont speed up or slow down throughout the race; and (2) they use the terrain to their advantage -- speeding up on a downhill and slowing down on an uphill.dddddddddddd These concepts formed the basis of a strategy to estimate a constant pace that Ward would try to match throughout the race, diverging only when the terrain dictated it.If you can get to mile 20 feeling like you are [at] 15, you have an easier time getting to the end, Ward said.On the micro level, Ward looked at data on his own performance to estimate what that pace should be. He used every one of his own workouts and races as a data point, and then used that data to look at the factors that positively and negatively impacted his performance. Finally, using several drills and workouts designed by Eyestone, as well as the terrain and weather conditions in Rio, he estimated the proper pace for his race that would get him a top-10 finish.This empirical work gave him confidence when he put his toe on the line in Rio, he could not only finish but also finish strong. ?The data says Im ready to run 2:10, said Ward. I believe that and can step on the line at the Olympic Games confident that I can hit the top 10.He also leaned on the analysis at that midway point of the race, when the aforementioned self-doubt crept in. He knew the research and analysis, trusting that if he kept to the plan -- even though some runners were breaking away from him -- he would have a top-10 finish. Armed with solid analytics and mental strength to push through his aching body, Ward crossed the finish line in sixth place with a personal-best time of 2:11:30.Wards story is about far more than analytics, but in a very real way, the analytics powered his Olympic performance. You can expect to hear from Ward -- and teammate Galen Rupp, who won the bronze medal in Rio, participating in just his second career marathon -- in the runup to the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo.Ward has certainly leaped into full world-class status, Eyestone told the Salt Lake Tribune. Youre top-six in the Olympic Games. ' ' '