Las Vegas, Nevada (USA) – The Ultimate Fighting Championship announced that rising light heavyweight star Jon “Bones” Jones will replace Rashad Evans in the main event of UFC 128 at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. on Saturday, March 19. The good news is that Jon Jones won’t have to wait much longer for a UFC championship match. The bad news is that he has barely six weeks to train for his first five-round fight, one of the greatest fighters in the world, and prepare to fight on the biggest stage of his career. Good luck!
| Event: UFC 128: Shogun vs. Jones
Date: March 19, 2011 Time: 10PM ET/7PM PT Location: Prudential Center, Newark, New Jersey Broadcast: Pay-per-view |
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UFC 128: Shogun vs. Jones Fight lines
Once MMA fans settled down after watching Anderson Silva‘s brutal knock out with a kick to the face of Vitor Belfort, the MMA world was buzzing about the Jones vs. Rua announcement. Following a dominant two round submission win over Ryan Bader at UFC 126, Jon Jones and the UFC crowd were informed together that he was awarded a shot at the UFC light heavyweight championship against Mauricio Shogun Rua at UFC 128. Seeing Jones drop to his knees in shock and excitement after the announcement was a moment that will go down in UFC history. Seeing Jones get dropped will likely be another.
The 23-year-old phenom’s hype now will only grow; few title challengers have entered a championship bout as a favorite.
It was revealed during the announcement that former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans blew out his knee in training and had to pull out of his scheduled title fight against Shogun at UFC 128. The UFC did a tremendous job of keeping this under wraps which is almost impossible in this day and age of 24 hour digital news. Surprisingly the UFC rolled their dice after an agreement from Shogun and told nobody else including Jones about the fight proposition. A gutsy call by the UFC considering that Jones vs. Bader on paper could have went either way.
A bantamweight clash between former WEC champions “The California Kid” Urijah Faber and Eddie Wineland will also be featured at UFC 128. Faber is considered one of the most dominant fighters in the history of the lighter weight classes, and once held the featherweight title for over two years. With a submission win over Takeya Mizugaki in his bantamweight debut in November, the 31-year-old has his sights set on Wineland, a former WEC bantamweight champion boasting four consecutive wins, including back-to-back Knockout of the Night victories.
With Chael Sonnen suspended by the UFC, Yoshihiro Akiyama will instead face middleweight contender Nate Marquardt at UFC 128.
Despite being a champion, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua currently is the underdog to title challenger Jon Jones in their upcoming UFC 128 title fight.
The betting lines are showing Jones as the favorite by as much as -215.
It’s not that surprising seeing as Shogun hasn’t fought since last May. And though he took the title from Lyoto Machida with an impressive KO in the first round, it has been over 10 months since we’ve seen him inside the Octagon, which almost makes him out of sight, out of mind. Currently all hype is squarely on Jon Jones who appears to be the biggest rising star in the UFC. However, with all the new attention this bout will be getting in the coming weeks leading up to the March 19th Main Event, we expect we’ll see a lot of movement on these lines, so if you think Rua’s experience can beat Jones’ youth then take advantage of his underdog value now which is as much as +175.
The fight card is below.
Mauricio “Shogun” Rua vs. Jon Jones
Urijah Faber vs. Eddie Wineland
Jim Miller vs. Kamal Shalorus
Mirko “Cro Cop” vs. Brendan Schaub
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Nate Marquardt
Edson Barboza vs. Anthony Njokuani
Joseph Benavidez vs. Ian Loveland
Kurt Pellegrino vs. Gleison Tibau
Ricardo Almeida vs. Mike Pyle
Nick Catone vs. Dan Miller
Luiz Cane vs. Karlos Vemola
UFC 128 Winners
Main Card:
Jon Jones def. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua – via third-round TKO
Urijah Faber def. Eddie Wineland – via unanimous decision
Jim Miller def. Kamal Shalorus – via third-round TKO
Nate Marquardt def. Dan Miller – via unanimous decision
Brendan Schaub def. Mirko Cro Cop – via third-round TKO
Undercard:
Luiz Cane def. Eliot Marshall – via first-round TKO
Edson Barboza def. Anthony Njokuani – via unanimous decision
Mike Pyle def. Ricardo Almeida – via unanimous decision
Gleison Tibau def. Kurt Pellegrino – via split decision
Joseph Benavidez def. Ian Loveland – via unanimous decision
Nick Catone def. Constantinos Philippou – via unanimous decision
Erik Koch def. Raphael Assuncao – via first-round KO