Prior to UFC 140, Jon Jones (15-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) had not lost a single round or had to face adversity inside the Octagon.Former champion Lyoto Machida (17-3 MMA, 9-3 UFC) was elusive early in the opening round and found success with his kicks and punche…
Prior to UFC 140, Jon Jones (15-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) had not lost a single round or had to face adversity inside the Octagon.
Former champion Lyoto Machida (17-3 MMA, 9-3 UFC) was elusive early in the opening round and found success with his kicks and punches.
Jones appeared frustrated after Machida staggered him and landed a flush body kick.
Machida forced Jones to play his technical striking game for the first five minutes of the fight, but in Round 2 Jones kicked low and to the body.
Halfway through the second stanza Jones utilized his advantage in wrestling to take the fight to the mat, where a few early elbows left a nasty cut above Machida’s right eye.
After both fighters traded punches, Jones locked on a standing guillotine choke and Machida’s inability to escape the submission left him unconscious.
“It’s not really a move I practice,” Jones said post-fight. “I think it’s just a move that comes natural from wrestling.”
While Jones escaped a tough first round to prove that he can deal with adversity, it also showed that he’s not untouchable.
Machida found success in the striking department and at one point had Jones frustrated, but the Brazilian jiu-jitsu master wasn’t equipped to deal with Jones’ unorthodox submission game.
Jones’ next foe will be the winner of Rashad Evans and Phil Davis at next month’s UFC on Fox 2 event on Jan. 21.
Evans and Jones are heated rivals, and if given the opportunity they will engage in what will likely be the most anticipated fight of 2012.
For additional information on UFC 140, follow Joshua Carey onTwitter.
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 Mach…
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.
Be sure to stay tuned to Bleacher Report for all things UFC 140. B/R is your home for complete coverage of the December 10 fight card, from pre-fight predictions toin-fight coverage, resultsand post-fight analysis.
TORONTO — Want to know how dominant UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones has been in his MMA career? He showed up at the UFC 140 post-fight press conference after a second-round stoppage of former champ Lyoto Machida and told members of the media that he was actually happy to have had an opponent who managed to punch him in face a few times, and no one seemed to regard this statement as the least bit absurd.
Maybe that’s because, by standing up to several blistering punch combos from Machida in the opening round of the main event bout, Jones effectively put to rest the last lingering questions about his perceived weaknesses.
“That’s definitely something that’s gotten made up by media, that I can’t take a punch,” Jones said. “I just felt as if it was something to address, just to kind of quiet more critics. …I knew I could take a punch, and I’m glad that I got to prove it.”
In fairness, it’s not that critics had necessarily accused Jones of having a weak chin. It was just, since he had so thoroughly dominated his previous opponents, few of whom had even managed to get their fists in the general vicinity of his face, it was one of the only question marks left regarding his ability. Machida helped answer those questions in the first round, and then he paid for it in the second round.
Though two of three judges at cageside actually scored the opening frame in Jones’ favor, Machida seemed to get the better of the action thanks to effective counter-punching and efficient combos. Even Jones admitted that the first round was “very, very confusing for me,” and it resulted in him taking several direct blows to the head.
In the second, however, Jones began to figure Machida out. After hurting him with a well-timed right hand that wobbled the Brazilian challenger, Jones secured a takedown and opened up a nasty cut over Machida’s right eye with an elbow strike from the top position. From there, Jones said, “that’s when my confidence really started to skyrocket.”
“I realized that, on the ground, I would have a pretty safe avenue to success there. And seeing the blood just really let me know that, he bleeds; let’s do this.”
If there were any doubters left who questioned whether Jones is indeed the world’s best 205-pound fighter, they likely had a hard time clinging to their illusions after Jones wrapped up a standing guillotine to choke Machida unconscious near the end of the second round. There was the man who had once looked like an unbeatable UFC champ, who had only been stopped one previous time in his MMA career, and Jones left him lying limply on the mat like a wet towel on the bathroom floor.
Even UFC president Dana White, who had hedged his praise for Jones after prior victories, had to give the champ his due.
“I’m done with this whole, ‘If he gets through the next one like he has all the others’ thing,” White said. “He’s the real deal.”
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After the presser, White said he now sees Jones as the world’s number two pound-for-pound fighter, behind only middleweight champ Anderson Silva, and in front of welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre. Ironic that he’d come around to that conclusion only after the rare fight that saw Jones actually look slightly mortal in the early going, but maybe it took that hint of vulnerability to remind the UFC president — not to mention the fans — that these are serious opponents Jones has been taking apart.
If anything, Jones has made it look too easy up until now. In 2011 he not only captured the UFC light heavyweight title, but also successfully defended it twice — a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since Chuck Liddell held the title. He dispatched MMA legends like “Shogun” Rua and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson with such ease that it actually seems newsworthy when he loses a round.
He’s been almost too good for his own good, so maybe it’s not such a bad idea to take a few punches from Machida, if only to show that he can. Now with this historic year of combat in the books, let the 24-year-old champ have a little time off. If anybody’s earned a vacation, it’s Jones. After all, he did just get punched in the face for our entertainment. Maybe other fighters regard that as just another aspect of the job, but for Jones it’s still a relatively new experience, and one he’d probably rather not get too accustomed to.
TORONTO — Want to know how dominant UFC light heavyweight champ Jon Jones has been in his MMA career? He showed up at the UFC 140 post-fight press conference after a second-round stoppage of former champ Lyoto Machida and told members of the media that he was actually happy to have had an opponent who managed to punch him in face a few times, and no one seemed to regard this statement as the least bit absurd.
Maybe that’s because, by standing up to several blistering punch combos from Machida in the opening round of the main event bout, Jones effectively put to rest the last lingering questions about his perceived weaknesses.
“That’s definitely something that’s gotten made up by media, that I can’t take a punch,” Jones said. “I just felt as if it was something to address, just to kind of quiet more critics. …I knew I could take a punch, and I’m glad that I got to prove it.”
In fairness, it’s not that critics had necessarily accused Jones of having a weak chin. It was just, since he had so thoroughly dominated his previous opponents, few of whom had even managed to get their fists in the general vicinity of his face, it was one of the only question marks left regarding his ability. Machida helped answer those questions in the first round, and then he paid for it in the second round.
Though two of three judges at cageside actually scored the opening frame in Jones’ favor, Machida seemed to get the better of the action thanks to effective counter-punching and efficient combos. Even Jones admitted that the first round was “very, very confusing for me,” and it resulted in him taking several direct blows to the head.
In the second, however, Jones began to figure Machida out. After hurting him with a well-timed right hand that wobbled the Brazilian challenger, Jones secured a takedown and opened up a nasty cut over Machida’s right eye with an elbow strike from the top position. From there, Jones said, “that’s when my confidence really started to skyrocket.”
“I realized that, on the ground, I would have a pretty safe avenue to success there. And seeing the blood just really let me know that, he bleeds; let’s do this.”
If there were any doubters left who questioned whether Jones is indeed the world’s best 205-pound fighter, they likely had a hard time clinging to their illusions after Jones wrapped up a standing guillotine to choke Machida unconscious near the end of the second round. There was the man who had once looked like an unbeatable UFC champ, who had only been stopped one previous time in his MMA career, and Jones left him lying limply on the mat like a wet towel on the bathroom floor.
Even UFC president Dana White, who had hedged his praise for Jones after prior victories, had to give the champ his due.
“I’m done with this whole, ‘If he gets through the next one like he has all the others’ thing,” White said. “He’s the real deal.”
%VIRTUAL-Gallery-141546%
After the presser, White said he now sees Jones as the world’s number two pound-for-pound fighter, behind only middleweight champ Anderson Silva, and in front of welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre. Ironic that he’d come around to that conclusion only after the rare fight that saw Jones actually look slightly mortal in the early going, but maybe it took that hint of vulnerability to remind the UFC president — not to mention the fans — that these are serious opponents Jones has been taking apart.
If anything, Jones has made it look too easy up until now. In 2011 he not only captured the UFC light heavyweight title, but also successfully defended it twice — a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since Chuck Liddell held the title. He dispatched MMA legends like “Shogun” Rua and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson with such ease that it actually seems newsworthy when he loses a round.
He’s been almost too good for his own good, so maybe it’s not such a bad idea to take a few punches from Machida, if only to show that he can. Now with this historic year of combat in the books, let the 24-year-old champ have a little time off. If anybody’s earned a vacation, it’s Jones. After all, he did just get punched in the face for our entertainment. Maybe other fighters regard that as just another aspect of the job, but for Jones it’s still a relatively new experience, and one he’d probably rather not get too accustomed to.
Well, here we are at the UFC’s second Toronto card of 2011 and I’m stuck at home an hour-and-a-half away live-blogging on my couch with my wife and my dog.
I got a call from a buddy a few hours ago telling me he had a free ticket for me, but I told him I had to keep you guys abreast of the action, so I took a raincheck. Don’t say I never do anything for you.
The prelims are already in the books. Check out the results after the jump and let’s get this thing going.
(“What you lookin’ at piss breath?”)
Well, here we are at the UFC’s second Toronto card of 2011 and I’m stuck at home an hour-and-a-half away live-blogging on my couch with my wife and my dog.
I got a call from a buddy a few hours ago telling me he had a free ticket for me, but I told him I had to keep you guys abreast of the action, so I took a raincheck. Don’t say I never do anything for you.
The UFC 140 prelims are already in the books. Check out the results after the jump and let’s get this thing going.
TORONTO — This is the UFC 140 live blog for Jon Jones vs. Lyoto Machida, the main event of tonight’s UFC pay-per-view from the Air Canada Centre.
Jones (14-1), who is fighting for the fourth time this year, is making his second title defense. Machida (17-2) fought once this year, knocking out Randy Couture at UFC 129 in April.
TORONTO — This is the UFC 140 live blog for Jon Jones vs. Lyoto Machida, the main event of tonight’s UFC pay-per-view from the Air Canada Centre.
Jones (14-1), who is fighting for the fourth time this year, is making his second title defense. Machida (17-2) fought once this year, knocking out Randy Couture at UFC 129 in April.
While December has been thought of as the return of Brock Lesnar to UFC, it may be Jon Jones that steals the show to close out 2011. Jones will do that with a first-round knockout of Lyoto Machida at UFC 140. Jones, the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, …
While December has been thought of as the return of Brock Lesnar to UFC, it may be Jon Jones that steals the show to close out 2011. Jones will do that with a first-round knockout of Lyoto Machida at UFC 140.
Jones, the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, will defend his title against the former champion Machida in what should be a battle of brains as much as brawn.
Machida is a very patient fighter, willing to stand and exchange in order to get an opening for his kicks or haymaker punches. Jones has never fought someone like Machida. The contrast in style will be enough to keep Jones weary of what Lyoto can do with his hands and feet.
All of this information is great, but while an obstacle for a normal fighter may leave them unsure of their final game plan, Jones isn’t a normal fighter.
With Shogun Rua making the blueprint on how to beat Machida, Jones will use his aggressive Muay Thai abilities to command the fight.
If I was running the corner of Jones, I would have Jones shooting in on Machida to make him work on the ground. That would take away any of the potent kicks that make Machida dangerous.
If the fight stays up, Jones has to push the tempo of the fight and keep it close enough that he can neutralize Machida’s big punches and head kicks. The only problem with clinching with a guy like Machida is falling prey to one of his submissions.
While Jones is a great fighter, he is still a kid and any mistake he makes will be capitalized on by Machida. If Jones fights smart, he has this fight in his hands.
This bout should be an absolute war that will either resurrect the career of Lyoto Machida or cement Jon Jones as one the top pound-for-pound MMA fighters in the world.
Check back for more on Mixed Martial Arts as it comes, and check out Bleacher Report’s UFC Page to get your fill of all things UFC/MMA. For more on MMA/UFC, check out Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot topics.
Prior to UFC 140, Jon Jones (15-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) had not lost a single round or had to face adversity inside the Octagon.
TORONTO — Want to know how dominant UFC light heavyweight champ 
TORONTO — This is the