UFC 140 Preview: Jon Jones Looks To Defend His Title Again

Jon Jones (14-1, 8-1 UFC) vs. Lyoto Machida (17-2, 9-2 UFC)
Talk about jumping the line. Before crane kicking Randy Couture in the grill, Lyoto Machida had dropped two consecutive fights and his last win was a controversial decision victory over Shogun Rua in 2009. A little extra work with Steven Seagal and maybe Machida has the ability to bring back the karate era. Or maybe Jon Jones toys with Machida like he has with everyone else.

Frank Mir (15-5, 13-5 UFC) vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (33-6-1, 1nc, 4-2 UFC)
The last time these two fought, it was December 2008 and the interim heavyweight title was on the line. My how things have changed. Mir is coming off two uninspiring victories against Roy Nelson and Cro Cop. Big Nog kept his career alive this summer with an emotional win in Brazil against Brendan Schaub.

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (19-5, 2-2 UFC) vs. Tito Ortiz (16-9-1, 15-9-1 UFC)
This fight was originally supposed to take place in March. Tito seems ready to finally walk away. It’s good that he seems ready to walk away on his own terms, but there’s no way to tell how that affected his preparation for this fight. We also don’t know how much either of these guys have left in their tanks. Tito is coming off a brutal loss to Rashad Evans in August. Little Nog is coming off two decision losses.

Brian Ebersole (48-14-1, 1nc, 2-0 UFC) vs. Claude Patrick (14-1, 3-0 UFC)
Rory MacDonald was originally supposed to be the Canadian in this fight. He got injured so Patrick might finally make a name for himself with a fight on a main card. Ebersole has been fighting since the year 2000, but he’s finally in the UFC and doing quite well for himself.

Mark Hominick (20-9, 3-1 UFC) vs. Chan Sung Jung (11-3, 1-0 UFC)
This is Hominick’s first fight since taking on Jose Aldo for the feather weight title. The Korean Zombie looks to keep his momentum going after his twister submission of Leonard Garcia in the spring.

WHY ARE THERE FOUR FIGHTS ON ION? I DON’T KNOW EITHER.
Igor Pokrajac vs. Krzysztof Soszynski
Jared Hamman vs. Constantinos Philippou
Dennis Hallman vs. John Makdessi
Yves Jabouin vs. Walel Watson

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Mark Bocek vs. Nik Lentz
Rich Attonito vs. Jake Hecht
John Cholish vs. Mitch Clarke