Jon
Jones looks unsinkable at 205 pounds. | Photo: Dave
Mandel/Sherdog.com
The
Ultimate Fighting Championship’s busiest month of all-time
draws to a close with
UFC
159 “Jones vs. Sonnen” on Saturday at the Prudential Center in
Newark, N.J.
Light heavyweight champion
Jon Jones will
return to the same venue he brought to its feet in March 2011, when
he dethroned
Mauricio Rua
with a third-round technical knockout. In his crosshairs, sits
Chael
Sonnen, who jumps to the 205-pound division for the first time
since his Octagon debut in 2005.
How We Got Here: This whacky main event between
Jones and Sonnen can be traced to
Dan
Henderson’s fragile knee ligament. Just a little over a week
before “Hendo” was poised to challenge Jones for the 205-pound
title at UFC 151, the 42-year-old injured his knee, leaving him
unable to fight the champion. Sonnen offered to take the fight on
short notice, Jones refused and the entire event was cancelled.
Apparently, that was all it took for UFC President Dana White to
turn a fleeting moment into a season of “The Ultimate Fighter” and
a pay-per-view headlined by the sport’s youngest superstar and its
preeminent trash talker ...
Michael
Bisping-
Alan
Belcher serves as an intriguing co-main event. Both
middleweights are top fighters looking to rebound from losses ...
Every UFC pay-per-view seems to require at least one heavyweight
slugfest, so
Roy Nelson
and
Cheick Kongo
will fill that quota ...
Vinny
Magalhaes did not even let
Phil Davis’
sweat dry after winning at UFC 153 before calling him out on
Twitter ... Lightweights
Jim Miller
and
Pat
Healy will get the main card popping, as two of the most
underrated fighters on the UFC roster collide.
File
Photo
Silva holds a special distinction
with oddsmakers.
A Not-So-Legendary Favorite: Jones was at one time
sitting as a -900 favorite over the challenger, which means one has
to bet $900 to win $100 on a “Bones” victory; and people wonder
where they found the $2.7 billion to build the Wynn hotel in Las
Vegas. You would think the reality of a middleweight coming off a
loss and facing a top three pound-for-pound light heavyweight might
create record-breaking odds, but it is not even close.
Georges St.
Pierre was -1100 when he fought -- and lost to --
Matt Serra at
UFC 69. This is not even the most substantial favorite Jones has
ever been. He was -925 against
Vitor
Belfort at UFC 152 in December. Still, the distinction of
biggest UFC main event favorite in history belongs to the man many
view as the greatest fighter of all-time. Middleweight champion
Anderson
Silva was -1350 against
Stephan
Bonnar at UFC 153, where he kneed “The American Psycho” into
retirement.
Expectations Unmet: Season 17 of “The Ultimate
Fighter” had everything going for it. The episodes aired on Tuesday
instead of the ratings wasteland we know as Friday night; the
talent pool was rich; and the camera work looked more like HBO’s
“24/7” series and less like Spike TV’s “Manswers.”
Pitting Sonnen against Jones as coaches was supposed to ensure the
season knocked it out of the park. No dice. Sonnen stayed busy
complimenting Jones, fighters on both teams, the guy who cleaned
the toilets, the troops and virtually any other human being within
earshot. The smack-talking Sonnen was nowhere to be found.
Seriously, he did not even rhyme once. Nearly every single analyst
picked the champion to have his way with the challenger, which left
Sonnen’s mouth with the sole responsibility of exciting the masses.
There are some things even the most overused muscles cannot
deliver, and this time, Sonnen did not even try.
Useless Fact: By the time UFC 159 concludes, 94
men and four women will have competed inside the Octagon in April,
making it the promotion’s busiest month ever with 49 bouts. Credit
the UFC’s four events and cards packed with an abnormally large
number of fights: UFC on Fuel TV 9 (13), “The Ultimate Fighter 17”
Finale (12), UFC on Fox 7 (12) and UFC 159 (12). If you feel like
your MMA viewing cardio has hit a wall when Jones and Sonnen step
into the cage, you now know why.
File
Photo
Alvarez is mired in a legal battle.
Delayed Debut: UFC 159 was to have marked the
promotional debut of former
Bellator
MMA lightweight champion
Eddie
Alvarez. However, arguably the sports hottest free agent is
stuck in a legal battle. He wants to fight in the UFC. Bellator
would rather he not. On Jan. 25, Alvarez failed to receive an
injunction that would have opened the UFC’s Octagon doors for him.
Needless to say, he would have made an excellent addition to the
lineup.
Say What: Belcher suggested in a Yahoo! blog that
Bisping was not talking as much leading up to their middleweight
duel because he is afraid of getting embarrassed again. The Brit
had plenty to say before fights with
Dan
Henderson and
Vitor
Belfort, only to wind up on the wrong end of highlight-reel
knockouts in both. However, Bisping told the SiriusXM Fight Club
that there was another reason for his relative silence: “The reason
I’ve been less vocal is because no one cares about Alan Belcher,
and the sooner I beat him and get another victory under my belt and
get back to my winning ways and fight people that are interesting
the less we have to talk about him. That’s the reason why I
haven’t
been talking about him everyday. No one is asking.”
File
Photo
Nelson wields a potent right hand.
Awards Watch: In an engaging
wrestling-versus-jiu-jitsu matchup, Davis and Magalhaes each have
something to prove -- on the mat -- in their main card bout.
Magalhaes’ jiu-jistu exploits are well-documented, while Davis is
one of the best wrestlers in the UFC, having incorporated the
skills that won him an NCAA national championship at Penn State
University into a solid MMA ground game. Someone is taking home a
“Submission of the Night” check, along with whatever limb he rips
off … “Knockout of the Night” is another loaded pick. Nelson and
Kongo are ridiculously hard-headed, with only two knockout losses
between them. That is a tiny number for two seasoned heavyweights.
It will be like catching a unicorn when Nelson lands his overhand
right and puts Kongo to sleep, and UFC brass will reward him for it
… “Fight of the Night” is a tough one to handicap.
Rustam
Khabilov could go on a suplex fest;
Sara McMann
and
Sheila Gaff
could go all female MMA on us; and
Leonard
Garcia could swing and grunt his way to a $50,000 check. With
that said, the UFC’s main card bias is well-chronicled when it
comes to handing out awards checks. Expect Bisping and Belcher to
provide the necessary fireworks in the co-main event.