UFC light heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones arguably had the best single year of any mixed martial artist in 2011, and to top off his impressive resume of victories included a second-round submission win over former champion Lyoto Machida at UFC 140.
“The Dragon” came into the December bout having just knocked out UFC Hall of Famer and former two-division champion Randy “The Natural” Couture.
Jones had defeated the likes of Quinton Jackson, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Ryan Bader, all of which were beaten by submission or knockout.
Machida, who was thought to have had the most difficult style for Jones to face, got off to a good start in the first round and even landed a solid punch to the untested chin of Jones. Despite his success in Round 1, all three judges gave Jones the round.
Jones wasted no time in Round 2 to begin establishing his attack with takedowns and elbows. After opening Machida up with an elbow on the ground, Jones finished off his opponent with a standing guillotine choke.
Jones’ next bout will come against Rashad Evans, the man who lost his title to Machida in 2009. It has been all victories for Evans since then, and his wins over Jackson, Thiago Silva, Tito Ortiz and Phil Davis have kept him the No. 1 contender.
The bout had been scheduled to take place in late 2011, but injuries forced the fight to be delayed. Now, the former teammates will face off at UFC 145, which goes down on April 21 on pay-per-view.
Other bouts on the card include Rory MacDonald vs. Che Mills, Brendan Schaub vs. Ben Rothwell, Michael McDonald vs. Miguel Torres, Mark Hominick vs. Eddie Yagin and Mark Bocek vs. John Alessio.
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