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The UFC 159: Jones vs. Sonnen event is set to take place on Saturday, April 27, from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The buzz for this card doesn’t seem to be high at all.
It’s probably due to the UFC on FOX 7 event that took place Saturday, and the popular opinion that Jon Jones is going to run through Chael Sonnen like castor oil in the main event.
So I wanted to really delve into the PPV portion of the card and determine if it’s an event worthy of getting hyped for on Saturday night?
Quality of fighters on the card(using UFC rankings since it’s a UFC card)
- Jon Jones(Best light heavyweight in the world) vs. Chael Sonnen(one of the best middleweights in the world who hasn’t fought at light heavyweight in years)
- Michael Bisping (ranked #4) vs. Alan Belcher (ranked #10, but is realistically probably top 15)
- Roy Nelson (ranked #6 ) vs. Cheick Kongo (unranked, but probably top 15 overall)
- Phil Davis (ranked #8 ) vs. Vinny Malgahaes (unranked, maybe top 20 overall)
- Jim Miller (ranked #4) vs. Pat Healy (unranked, maybe top 15-20 overall)
So we basically have five top 10 fighters fighting five fighters that are not in the top 10.
Entertainment Value
- Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen will most likely not go to the judges
- Michael Bisping vs. Alan Belcher is a fight that could be fairly exciting as both fighters like to stand and strike while being well versed in submissions
- Roy Nelson vs. Cheick Kongo is a fight in which somebody will likely get knocked out
- Phil Davis vs. Vinny Malgahaes is a fight that makes zero sense for Davis…but could be entertaining since he’ll likely keep the fight standing to avoid the submission game of Malgahaes
- Jim Miller vs. Pat Healy should be an entertaining affair as both fighters like to get after their opponents.
Summary
It’s an OK card and you don’t have to pay another PPV price until UFC 160 on May 25th, so if you have the cash it may be worth checking out or at least going to your local bar establishment. The Miller/Healy fight has some value in the division as the winner of that fight shoots up the ladder a bit. If Phil Davis beats Magalhaes it doesn’t do anything for him, but if Magalhaes pulls off the upset it would be huge. Roy Nelson knocking out Cheick Kongo doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know. Bisping/Belcher is a fight in which two fighters are trying to rebound from a loss while not being relatively close to earning a title shot. Jon Jones should beat Chael Sonnen, but I think Sonnen will put up much more of a fight than people give him credit for. Be sure to check out my fight breakdown that will be posted on Friday morning right here at ProMMAnow.com
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