The Octagon Yields to T-Mobile Center in Las Vegas for Saturday night’s 11-fight UFC 239 card.
The series features a set of name fights, with MMA’s best-ever fighters around the men’s and women’s side defending their individual belts.
Jon’Bones’ Jones is set to take on Thiago Santos in the primary event. Jones was a -600 favored at most books as of Tuesday, but the Westgate SuperBook had Jones at -850 late Friday afternoon. Santos was a +575 underdog in the Westgate. Quite a few overseas stores had Jones in a cheaper price from the -650 area. The total has been 2.5 rounds (‘under’ -135,”over’ +105) at most spots.
Jones (24-1-1 MMA, 18-1-1 UFC) has had his hands increased 25 occasions in 26 career fights. His only”loss” was a disqualification for illegal 12-to-6 elbows at a blowout win over Matt Hamill on Dec. 5 of 2009. His third-round knockout win over Daniel Cormier at UFC 214 was overturned and changed into some no-decision when Jones tested positive for the PED turinabol.
Jones seems — for now — to be on the ideal track outside of the cage lately. This will be his third fight in a span of six months and one week, marking his most activity since 2011-12. He’s indicated he wants to fight at least three occasions in 2019.
Jones is off a unanimous-decision triumph over Anthony Smith in UFC 235 at March. He dominated Alexander Gustafsson with a third-round KO success at UFC 232 on Dec. 29 of 2018. Before those two victories, various suspensions and arrests enabled him to compete only four times in a period of over five decades.
Jones has cleaned out the light-heavyweight branch during his career. In a five-fight extend from March 19 of 2011 to Sept. 22 of 2012, he won the belt and successfully defended it four times. All five of those wins came over former winners — Shogun Rua, Rampage Jackson, Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans and Vitor Belfort. Only Evans travelled the distance with Jones during this interval.
Santos (21-6 MMA, 13-5 UFC) is 8-1 in his past nine struggles since February of 2017. He has ripped six fight-night bonuses during this stretch. The 35-year-old Santos competed at middleweight his entire career until moving up to 205 pounds to face Eryk Anders in the UFC Fight Night 137 headliner at Sao Paulo last September.
Anders took the battle on six days of note if Jimi Manuwa pulled out his departure with Santos because of an injury. The former University of Alabama football player had to fly to Brazil and make weight in quick order. Plus, he was heading up a weight class for the first time in his profession.
The garbage was a slugfest that earned Fight of the Night honors. Regrettably, Anders collapsed because of exhaustion while trying to walk back to his corner when the third round finished. The referee immediately known as the fight to give Santos a TKO victory.
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