In some respects, the jury was still out on Jon Jones in December 2011.
Jones, at this point 14-1 in his still-developing mixed martial arts career, had won the the UFC’s light heavyweight title the previous March in a shellacking of Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua and defended it once around six months after that against another former PRIDE stalwart in Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson.
Lyoto Machida, though, was expected by many to be a different kind of test. While Joe Rogan’s prophecy of the supposed ‘Machida era’ never really bore the fruit that many expected, the karate stylist was expected to present a formidable challenge to the young champion — even despite losing the first two fights of his career (to Shogun and Rampage, incidentally) a year prior.
Not so. Jones suitably underscored his status as one of the finest talents in the sport with a decisive second round submission finish of the Brazilian — with the image of him dropping the unconscious Machida to the mat once of the more devastating clips in mixed martial arts history.
Check out the bout in full below:
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