Jones has faced Ryan Bader, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson so far this year. At UFC 140 Jones got yet another top fighter in Lyoto Machida and had a great second round to put him away.
Jones was outpointed in the first round by Machida. Machida was able to stay away from Jones’ strike and even at one point landed a clean shot on Jones.
Machida gave Jones his toughest round of his career and was able to make Jones a little worried and a little more hesitant to throw.
Then in the second round it was all Jones. Jones got a thunderous takedown, which was the turning point of the fight and the beginning of the end.
Jones was then able to land a couple of clean elbows on Machida, who had a nice gash open on his forehead. Referee John McCarthy then stopped the fight once the two got standing for the doctors to check the cut on Machida’s head over his right eyebrow.
The doctor cleared Machida to fight and the two were once again put in the same position. Jones then quickly got Machida in a standing guillotine choke, and only a little bit later Machida was out cold and dropped to the mat like a ton of bricks, successfully giving Jones his second title defense.
The big part of this was that, in some eyes, Machida won the first round from Jones. Even with that adversity Jones was able to get past it and win the fight in the next round.
Jones may have won some more people over tonight, but to some he still has a couple fighters left he has to beat. Namely Rashad Evans and Dan Henderson—two fighters who have been considered the possible biggest threats to Jones.
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