UFC 140 JONES VS. MACHIDA
BY : ANTHONY L. GONZALEZ
UFC 140 on Saturday December 10th, 2011 9 pm EST at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario will be one of the UFC’s best PPV events of the year. This card has three bouts that feature 6 UFC legends. Former light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida ( 17-2-0) takes on Jon Jones who is (14-1-0) and is current light heavyweight UFC champion. Jones’s only loss was a controversial disqualification loss to Matt Hamill in 2009 by illegal strikes.
Jon Jones is one of the most dangerous mma fighters to come out of the UFC in years. He is coming off his best victory when he submitted Quinton “Rampage” Jackson this September at UFC 135 by a rear naked choke. Rampage Jackson was finished for the first time in his very long mma career. Jones also has a TKO win over former UFC champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, to win the UFC belt in Newark, NJ in March of this year at UFC 128 in the Prudential Center.
Lyoto Machida who is 33 years old, is one of the best and most elusive defensive fighters in UFC history. Machida is a rare technical fighter who specializes in Karate and Jijitsu. The reason machida is so good is because he has outstanding footwork and he is statistically the hardest guy to hit in UFC history. Many critics say his style is “boring”, but I feel his style in one of the best in mma today, because he knows avoids the most damage. Machida has excellent timing and is a rare mma counter fighter. Machida also has great kicks and has very good anti-wrestling defense. Machida is a black belt in Shotokan Karate. He is also has a excellent ground game and is a Black Belt in Brazilian Jijitsu.
Machida’s top 2 career highlights are ending Randy Couture’s career by a “flying crane kick” at UFC 129 in April. A crane kick is a move out of the first Karate Kid movie. His other career highlight was his devastating KO win over former light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans at UFC 98 in May 2009. Lyoto Machida’s ability is comparable to a modern version of Bruce Lee.
Jon Jones has a very difficult and unconventional style of fighting. He specializes in kicks, elbows and has dangerous knees in the clinch. He is also 6 feet 3 and uses his height to his full reach advantage. He has outstanding wrestling and comes from a solid college wrestling background which is his base. No fighter has been even close to hurting him in his entire career. His repertoire includes a spinning back fist, dangerous spinning back elbows and a spinning back heel kick to go along with his head kicks. You just do not what he is going to do because he is so unpredictable on his feet. He also features a lot of physical strength and literally has dominated everyone one of his opponents. The scariest thing about Jones, is he is only 24 years old and has just started his mma career less than 3 years ago. His potential is unlimited !
Personally, I feel Jones will be too much for Machida because of his physical strength advantage and his constant pressure attacks. I do not think Machida can handle the type of constant pressure that Jones delivers. Machida is a legend, but I feel this fight will not last the entire 5 rounds. Jones has too many weapons to defend. Machida is preparing with Anderson Silva for this fight and has said that this is the most important fight of his career.
In other UFC action, former UFC champion Tito Ortiz (17-9-0) takes on the very tough Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (19-5-0). This fight is very important fight for both of their resumes and should be an exciting fight.
The other feature bout on the card is former UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir (15-5-0) who takes on Antonio’s brother, former Pride Champion Minotauro Nogueira (33-6-1). Nogueira lost to Frank Mir in December 2008 and is looking to avenge his first UFC loss. A lot of people are saying Nogueira was injured before going into the last fight. Nogueira is healthy now. The winner of this fight will be in contention for the UFC Heavyweight title.
“Both men are known as two of the premiere submission specialists in the division but have shown dangerous striking skills as well,” said UFC president Dana White.
UFC®140: JONES vs. MACHIDA, which takes place Saturday, Dec. 10 from Air Canada Centre in Toronto, will be available live on Pay-Per-View at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on UFC.TV, iN DEMAND, DirecTV, DISH Network, Avail-TVN, BellTV, ShawTV, SaskTel,Viewer’s Choice Canada and Canal Indigo for a suggested retail price of $44.99 US/$54.99 CAN for Standard Definition and $54.99 US/$59.99 CAN for High Definition.
Please follow mma writer Anthony L. Gonzalez on TWITTER @anthonylgonzalz and @REALCOMBATMEDIA. Please feel free to share your comments in the social networking comment section below.
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