Few in the history of mixed martial arts can claim a year more dominant than Jon Jones’ 2011.
Jones, whose long path to the Light Heavyweight Championship was put on a fast track due to injuries this spring, has simply been unstoppable. After dominating Ryan Bader, he moved onto Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, who he crushed to win the Light Heavyweight Championship. He then broke Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in a way few ever have, before moving onto UFC 140.
Despite suffering some early pressure in round one, Jones’ performance against Lyoto Machida will ultimately be viewed as another shocking display of domination. After busting Machida open with a vicious elbow in round two, Jones soon followed up with a standing guillotine that put Machida to sleep.
And, surprisingly, that was not even the best submission of the night.
That honor instead goes to the ending of the Frank Mir-Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira fight. Having rocked Mir with punches, Nogueira engaged the former UFC Heavyweight Champion with a guillotine attempt on the ground. There, Mir put on a grappling clinic, grabbing Nogueira’s arm for a kimura attempt, and then keeping the move locked even as Nogueira tried to roll out of it. Mir ultimately rolled into the leverage he needed, and crushed Nogueira’s arm in the process. Nogueira suffered what appeared to be brutal damage to his arm and shoulder, and he was forced to tap.
The submission win was poetic for Mir, who spent years fending off claims that his prior win over Nogueira–the first knockout loss of the PRIDE veteran’s career–was a fluke, aided by the fact that Nogueira was not 100%. This time, Mir beat a ready-to-go Nogueira at his own game–jiu-jitsu.
Granted, Mir did not look great prior to the finish, but at the end of the day, he now has two wins over the legendary Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.
What else happened at UFC 140? Results follow:
John Cholish b. Mitch Clarke via TKO (punches) at 4:36 of round 2
Jake Hecht b. Rich Attonito via TKO (punches) at 1:10 of round 2
Mark Bocek b. Nik Lentz via unanimous decision (30–27, 30–27, 30–27)
Yves Jabouin b. Walel Watson via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 30-27)
Dennis Hallman b. John Makdessi via submission (rear naked choke) at 2:58 of round 1
Constantinos Philippou b. Jared Hamman via KO (strikes) at 3:11 of round 1
Igor Pokrajac b. Krzysztof Soszynski via KO (punches) at 0:35 of round 1
Chan Sung Jung b. Mark Hominick via TKO (punches) at 0:07 of round 1
Brian Ebersole b. Claude Patrick via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira b. Tito Ortiz via TKO (strikes to the body) at 3:15 of round 1
Frank Mir b. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira via submission (kimura) at 3:38 of round 1
Jon Jones b. Lyoto Machida via technical submission at 4:26 of round 2
