In perhaps his biggest test up to this point in his career, light heavyweight prospect Jon Jones continued to live up to his potential as he quickly disposed of Brandon "The Truth" Vera in under one round. The twenty-two year old fighter set the pace of the fight from the get go rushing in and taking his opponent to the ground. Vera would mostly work from his guard attempting to get to his feet, he eventually caught Jones with a illegal up kick that caused a pause in the action. Referee Herb Dean restarted both fighters in their initial positions and soon after Jones landed a series of elbows that immediately made Vera grimace in pain. The Philippine fighter turtled up before the bout was stopped at 3:19 of the first. Jones seemed very confident that he would get the win, "I definitely didn't take Brandon Vera lightly. I studied him day and night. I studied all his footage. I almost I felt as if I knew him before I stepped in here with him."
The battle of the Brazilian heavy hitters was in full effect in the semi main event of the evening. Both Junior dos Santos and Gabriel Gonzaga had come off of TKO wins in their previous bouts. One had the feeling that with these two monsters in the cage someone was going to go to sleep. Dos Santos would save the napping for when he is not in the Octagon as he defeated Gonzaga via TKO in the first round. After a cautious first minute, where both fighters did more dancing than fighting, Dos Santos would connect with a counter hook to offset a Gonzaga low kick that sent his opponent down to the mat. Thunder and lightning came via Dos Santos' right and left hands as his downed opponent absorbed punch after punch before the bout was called off. Dos Santos believes he is ready to face the best of the best in the division signaling a desire for a title shot, “I think I’m ready -- I’m ready for the title shot. If the UFC wants, I’m ready.”
After two disappointing back to back losses Chieck Kongo had something to smile about as he defeated longtime veteran Paul Buentello in odd fashion. Kongo's victory would come via tapout due to thigh strikes. One would think that coming into this fight Kongo would prefer to stand given his advantages in reach but surprised everyone opting to work takedowns. Buentello had no answer as in the span of three rounds accumulated damage to head, face and body that had him tapping at 1:16 of that final round. The scrappy Buentello did put up a fight but failed to land when Kongo did choose to briefly let leather fly in exchanges. Kong for the most part had everything in control and followed a simple recipe for victory: land two or three punches and immediately go for the take down. There were some bumps in the road as Buentello dislocated his pinky in the first and took a hard knee to the head while he was down in the second. The damage would just be too much as Kongo imposed his will as a visibly gassed and dispirited Buentello was forced to tap while on all fours after a series of hard strikes to his body and thigh.
If the up kick of the Vera fight and the Pinky dislocation of the Kongo fight weren't enough to make it a odd evening the conclusion to the Alessio Sakara/James Irvin fight topped them all. Irvin, whose last appearance in the Octagon was a quick knockout loss to Anderson Silva would drop another quick loss but in confusing fashion. Sakara would land a well placed left hook that immediately had Irvin grab his eye, drop to one knee and motion that he was poked in the eye. Sakara vehemently claimed that it was a punch rather than a eye poke. While Irvin continued to claim an eye poke occurred and doctors attended him, replays showed that it was the knuckles of the well placed left hook of Sakara to the eye socket of Irvin that caused the damage. With this now out in the open, Sakara was given the TKO win at 3:01 of the first round. "I knew it was a legal blow in live action, It was a legit punch " Sakara said after the fight.
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On the undercard:
Clay Guida def. Shannon Gugerty via arm-triangle choke in R2 (3:40)
Vladimir Matyushenko def. Eliot Marshall via split decision (30-27, 28-29, 30-27)
Darren Elkins def. Duane Ludwig via TKO due to an ankle injury in R1 (0:44)
John Howard def. Daniel Roberts via KO in R1 (2:01)
Brendan Schaub def. Chase Gormley via TKO in R1 (0:47)
Mike Pierce def. Julio Paulino via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Jason Brilz def. Eric Schafer via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28
Marcos Villegas
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