UFC 159: Jones vs. Sonnen Bold Predictions
The UFC will be in Newark, New Jersey this weekend with a UFC 159 fight card that features the light heavyweight champion Jon Jones versus the “People’s Champion” Chael Sonnen for the UFC light heavyweight title. The Ultimate Fighter 17 coaches played nice during the show but returned to hyping the fight (Sonnen) and mean mugging (Jones) as the two will finally step into the cage on Saturday.
The champion enters the fight as a heavy favorite over Sonnen, who has carried the promoting of the fight card solely on his shoulders. The TUF 17 season kind of killed the angle of the two fighters disliking each other, but that’s OK because two other UFC main card bouts can pick up the slack in that department.
In the night’s Co-main event are middleweight Michael Bisping and Alan Belcher. The two have a long history of trash talking between the two that only escalated once their bout was announced. They are promising to beat each other up and if their verbal sparring is any indication of how the fight will be the fans are not going to want to miss it.
Another light heavyweight bout on the UFC 159 main card is Phil Davis against Vinny Magalhaes. These two went back and forth on twitter after Forrest Griffin was injured a removed from his UFC 155 bout against Davis. Magalhaes said he’s fight Davis on shot notice, that never happened and things got ugly fast. Don’t expect these two to touch gloves and according to Magalhaes don’t expect the fight to go to the judges either.
Opening the PPV main card will be a lightweight battle between Jim Miller and former Strikeforce contender Pat Healy. Both fighters will look to get their name into the mix in a top-heavy lightweight division with an impressive victory. Rounding out the main card will be a heavyweight bout between Cheick Kongo and Ultimate Fighter season 10 winner, Roy Nelson.
UFC 159 takes place inside the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey and the main card will air live on PPV. The preliminary card will begin on Facebook at appox 3:30pm PT / 6:30pm ET before concluding on FX starting at 5pm PT / 8pm ET.
At Last weekend’s knockout filled UFC on FOX 8; I went 8-4 with my predictions to improve my overall total to 79-49 (61.7%). The questionable call on the Francis Cormont vs. Lorenz Larkin bout cost me a 9-3 mark on the night but MMA scoring is, well it’s MMA scoring. There are 12 fights taking place at UFC 159 and below are my predictions:
MAIN CARD:
205 lbs. Title Fight: Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen – Jon Jones
185 lbs.: Alan Belcher vs. Michael Bisping – Michael Bisping
265 lbs.: Cheick Kongo vs. Roy Nelson – Roy Nelson
205 lbs.: Phil Davis vs. Vinny Magalhaes – Phil Davis
155 lbs.: Pat Healy vs. Jim Miller – Jim Miller
PRELIMINARY CARD:
135 lbs.: Johnny Bedford vs. Bryan Caraway – Bryan Caraway
205 lbs.: Ovince St. Preux vs. Gian Villante – Ovince St. Preux
135 lbs.: Sheila Gaff vs. Sara McMann – Sara McMann
155 lbs.: Rustam Khabilov vs. Yancy Medeiros – Rustam Khabilov
145 lbs.: Leonard Garcia vs. Cody McKenzie – Leonard Garcia
170 lbs.: Nick Catone vs. James Head – James Head
145 lbs.: Kurt Holobaugh vs. Steven Siler – Kurt Holobaugh
UFC 159 Event Poster
Category: MMA, Opinion, Predictions, UFC