Brandon Vera vs. Jon Jones Possible To Headline UFN 21
After an injury forced Antonio Rogerio Nogueira out of a planned UFC 109 bout with Brandon Vera, rather than book a new opponent for that night for Vera, the UFC appears to have gone in a different direction. They are instead targeting a match up pitting Vera against Jon Jones in a likely headlining fight at the yet unannounced Ultimate Fight Night 21, according to a message posted on Vera’s Twitter, which has since been deleted due to the fact that the UFC has not officially announced the contest.
UFN 21 is expected to take place on March 31 and serve as the lead in to season 11 of The Ultimate Fighter featuring coaches Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell.
Vera was last in action in a close, and somewhat controversial loss to Randy Couture at UFC 105 in November. Prior to the loss to Couture, Vera had won back to back fights defeating Mike Patt via TKO at UFC 96, and decisioning Krzysztof Soszynski at UFC 102 in August.
Jones was last in action at the finale of season 10 of The Ultimate Fighter where he put on a dominating performance against Matt Hamill, only to be disqualified after the bout was halted following illegal elbows from Jones, a decision Jones has appealed. Prior to the loss to Hamill Jones had been undefeated in his MMA career, including UFC wins over Andre Gusmao, Stephan Bonnar, and Jake O’Brien.
Tags: Brandon Vera, Jon jones
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Carls called it. This should be a fantastic fight to watch. I can’t wait to see Jones back in action, too bad about his last fight but I believe that it won’t effect him.
This is a great match!
Jones impressed the hell out of in his hamill fight. I know he lose but he was 1 or 2 elbows away from another win. Mazzagatti isn’t really the best judge imho when it comes to dealing with illegal blows(brock vs mir 1).
Vera has to come out gunz super blazing like he once did and like he tried against couture or else jones will work him and beat him.
and he was also 1-2 elbows away from ending hamils carrer or possibly even killing him…
im not impressed by jones’ latest fight, he got over taken by bloodlust and lost his head… that is something that should not happen in a fight at this level…
i think jones has alot of talent yet to show but first he needs to get his head on straight… and as for him appealing the decision… i hope they keep it the way it was… its as though he didnt learn from his mistake
First of all, wow, that’s harsh. I think Jones was just looking to land strikes to get the fight stopped, because he thought it should have been stopped already, and didn’t think about the fact that the strikes he was throwing were illegal.
Second, Jones isn’t appealing whether or not the elbows were illegal, he is appealing why Hamill couldn’t continue. The fight was deemed a DQ based on the information Mazzagatti had at the time that Hamill couldn’t continue due to cut, however Hamill stated he couldn’t continue because of his shoulder. That is why there is an appeal.
so he “thought” and then mere seconds later he ” didnt think”
and as for what ever spin as been put on his appeal doesnt change the fact that he used illegal strikes and thats what stopped the fight…
when maz asked hamil ” can you continue ” hamil couldnt see him speak or hear him talk… hamil thought it was already over hell if i was in his shoes i would have too… the shoulder thing is a non-issue because of the elbows, if the elbows wouldnt have happened jones would have won… and im sure hamil would have been able to continue regardless of his shoulder injury at the time had they been stood back up and hamil given time to recover, but the damage he sustained from the elbows weas more than enough to put him out for the night…
i say the DQ is the right call, and to rule this a N/C is not the right thing to do.. jones needs to have that loss on his record so he remembers to keep his head in the fight and stay focused…
otherwise it could develope a situation where jones thinks/doesnt think and ends up doing it again or worse
Hopefully this will be Vera’s last fight in the UFC….
OH YEAH BABY!!!!!
nice matchmaking, i like this fight… we have seen the kind of work jones is capable of, and we know vera has his back against the wall with his future in the UFC, so this is going to be a real slobberknocker
I’m startin to think Joe Silva visits the frenzy! This should be friggin SAWEEET!! Callin for Vera TKO late in the 2nd or in the 3rd
Vera had better be ready to open things up more against Jones than he was against Couture, or he’ll come up short yet again…
Goodnight Mr. Vera. Sweet dreams.
Great fight, but it sort of thins out UFC 109. It only leaves the card with 8 fights. 8 excellent fights mind you, but only 8 fights. And with less than 2 months before the card, they’ll have to do some quicktime shuffling to top off the card.