Before Jon Jones takes part in his third title fight since December of 2018, let’s take a look back at a much younger “Bones” navigating his way through the Light Heavyweight division en route to one of the most dominate championship runs ever.
In what would be his fourth title defense ever, Jon was lined up to take on former 205-pound champion and living legend, Vitor Belfort, in the main event of UFC 152 back in 2012. At the time, “The Phenom” was coming two back-to-back stoppage wins over Yoshihiro Akiyama and Anthony Johnson and has won seven of his previous eight fights.
Early on, Jones implemented his wrestling by scoring a quick takedown on Belfort, who knows a thing or three about how to get out of precarious situations on the floor. And he proved just that by quickly latching on to one of Jon’s arms with an armbar, forcing Jon to do his hardest to shake off the Brazilian bomber.
Once free, it didn’t take long for Jon to unless his hellacious elbows to bust Vitor’s face wide open. Round two was predominantly played on the feet until “The Phenom” inexplicably pulled guard, perhaps hoping he’d be able to sink in another armbar. Instead, he simply ate more of Jon’s shots. In round three, Jones clipped Vitor with a perfectly-executed kick to the body, sending him down in pain.
In round four, Jon once again found himself in Vitor’s guard, this time making him pay for it by unleashing some vicious elbows and eventually sinking in a fight-ending kimura to score his fourth straight title defense.
Now, Jon will look for his tenth title defense when he faces Thiago Santos this Saturday night (July 6, 2019) at UFC 239 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
To see who else will be fighting at the UFC 239: “Jones vs Santos” extravaganza click here