UFC light heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones will fight for the fourth time this year when he faces former champion Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida at UFC 140.
The fight is set to go down one week from Saturday at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Canada. Jones is coming off his successful title defense versus Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. His other victories in 2011 include those over Ryan Bader and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.
“I’ve always felt confident with martial arts, and I always knew that I would fight Lyoto one day,” Jones said in a pre-fight interview from UFC.com. “Lyoto’s a great opponent, man, he’s game. I think he takes this sport seriously. I think he’s unpredictable, he’s fast. Lyoto loves distance and I love distance, but I have the longer limbs, and I believe I’m just as fast. So if Lyoto wants to play the distance game with me, I think that’s going to be awesome.”
Machida rebounded from two back-to-back losses against Jackson and “Shogun” to knock out Randy Couture at UFC 129 earlier this year. He was offered a late-replacement fight with Rashad Evans at UFC 133 but declined the offer and got the fight with Jones.
“I’m also very unpredictable,” Jones continued. “I have tons of confidence and faith in my wrestling abilities against Lyoto. I feel as if I can shoot at his legs and take him down, and I also feel as if I have tons of versatility from the clinch.”
“I know myself. I know my weaknesses, I am not naive to them, and I am starting to understand my opponent,” Jones said. “I am starting to understand what makes Lyoto Lyoto—where he’s strong, where he’s weak.”
“I will defeat Lyoto Machida. I believe that it’s my destiny to be UFC champion for many years.”
UFC 140 will be available on pay-per-view and will feature a five-fight main card, including bouts between Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Tito Ortiz and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Mark Hominick and Chan Sung Jung. Brian Ebersole will also be featured in a welterweight matchup against Claude Patrick.
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