In hyping the legitimacy of UFC on FOX winner Lyoto Machida, commentator Joe Rogan noted that Machida was the only fighter to ever win a round over Jon Jones. Rogan’s reference was to Machida’s impressive first round performance against Jones in their UFC 140 contest.
What Rogan overlooked, however, was Stephan Bonnar’s performance against Jon Jones at UFC 94. Though the bout is best remembered as the moment eventual Light Heavyweight Champion Jones emerged as a legitimate star of the future, Bonnar actually won the third round on two of the three scorecards.
Since mixed martial arts awards victories (either split decisions or majority decisions) to fighters who claim the win on two of the three cards, Bonnar did officially win that third round. And he did so almost three full years before Machida did.
