Sherdog’s Top 10: UFC Light Heavyweight Title Fights

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9. Jon Jones vs. Lyoto Machida
UFC 140
Dec. 10, 2011 | Toronto
Jones answered the first real adversity of his career in resounding fashion, choked Machida unconscious to retain the UFC light heavyweight crown and completed perhaps the most remarkable 12-month run in mixed martial arts history. Jones kept his stranglehold on the 205-pound division with a riveting victory over Machida in the UFC 140 main event at the Air Canada Centre. The 24-year-old champion trapped Machida in a standing guillotine choke against the cage and rendered him unconscious 4:26 into Round 2. “Bones” finished all four of his opponents in 2011, three of them -- Machida, Quinton Jackson and Mauricio Rua -- former UFC champions. Machida dented the Jones aura in the first round, where he darted in and out, countered effectively and connected with more than one straight left hand. Jones returned to his corner with a look of concern on his face. In the second round, the champion avoided Machida’s strikes, scored with a takedown midway through period and delivered a wicked elbow from the top that left a nasty gash on Machida’s forehead. After the cageside physician checked the cut, the two men engaged again on the feet, and Jones, not known for his punching power, dropped Machida with a counter left hook. As “The Dragon” rose to his feet, Jones pinned him on the fence in a guillotine, and moments later, Machida went limp.

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