What a very strange night of fights. There were two technical decisions from eye pokes, the second Mom to record a win inside the Octagon, and Jones’ broken toe interview with Joe Rogan. Weird stuff.
Jon Jones easily defended his belt against Chael Sonnen, or as he put it “He Chael Sonnen’d Chael Sonnen”. Hopefully, Chael’s WWE BS won’t be heard now for a while.
Weigh-ins for ‘UFC 159: Jones vs Sonnen’ took place today at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. All 24 fighters made weight with the exception of Nick Catone who has been fined 20 percent of his purse, but the fight will go on as scheduled.
A very high-energy weigh-in overall with a mixed bag of entertainment. The champion Jon Jones delighted the crowd when he threw them his new pair of Nike sneakers into the seats. Imagine if you came home to your significant other with one brand new sneaker, “No, I swear, it’s Jon Jones’ shoe that I caught at the UFC weigh-ins today”.
Phil Davis vs. Vinny Magalhaes Poster
Fighter Profiles
Phil Davis (10-1)
Vinny Magalhaes (10-5)
CageWall Event Page
UFC 159: Jones vs Sonnen
Overview
A match made on Twitter. These two guys basically called each other out on Twitter and are now officially matched up to fight. Vinny Magalhaes initiated the challenge, and Davis quickly accepted. Oh, and then the UFC made it happen. If there was no UFC, I guess these guys would be fighting outside of some bar in Jersey instead of the Prudential Center. More evidence of why crime rates have gone down since the UFC started promoting fights.
Forrest Griffin
[UPDATE: Dana mentioned at the UFC on FOX 5 pre-fight presser that Phil Davis will be moved to a card in the future and get a new opponent]
UFC President Dana White tweeted the bad news today from the Forrest Griffin camp (@danawhite):
“Forrest Has MCL tear and ACL strain. 20 cc’s of blood removed from his knee and the saga continues at the UFC!!”
Sounds pretty bad, unless you’re a vampire of course. There was no mention of a replacement for his fight against Phil Davis and no timetable for his return. With the event just a little more than three weeks away, it’s going to be quite the challenge to find an opponent. Tito? Chuck?
Phil Davis vs Forrest Griffin
The UFC has found an opponent for Forrest Griffin (19-7) for ‘UFC 155: dos Santos vs Velasquez II’ following the cancellation of his fight with Chael Sonnen due to Chael having to perform his duties as coach on TUF 17. Fellow light heavyweight Phil Davis (10-1) has agreed to fight Forrest after just two months off.
Phil Davis fought just this past week at UFC 153 in Rio beating Wagner Prado convincingly via an anaconda choke in the second. The rematch with Prado came after the two met a few months prior where the fight ended as a ‘No Contest’ following an accidental eye poke to Prado from Davis. Prior to that, Davis lost for the first time in his career to Rashad Evans via unanimous decision.