UFC 140

In two weeks the UFC will make its triumphant return to Toronto, Canada, this time for UFC 140 headlined by a Light Heavyweight title fight between champion Jon Jones and Lyoto Machida. The last time the worlds top MMA promotion ran in Toronto, they sold out the Rogers Center in nearly 20 minutes. This time around, bookie software agents were shocked to learn, the UFC would be running out of a smaller venue, the Air Canada Center. Here is a preview of the card.

Entering the final month of 2011, the Light Heavyweight division of the UFC has literally been the talk of the company. From the aforementioned Jon Jones crushing Shogun Rua at UFC 128 to win the title, to UFC 139 Shogun v Henderson fans both casual and hardcore have been chomping at the bit for more Light Heavyweight action. When Jones and Machida face at UFC 140, it will once again feature a Light Heavyweight event, in which fans are hoping the champion looses to the more brand name recognizable fighter in Machida.

This will be the first time that Jones and Machida have met in the sports betting octagon. According to a slew of reports, Machida was going to fight top Light Heavyweight prospect Phil Davis in the main event of this card, but Davis had to pull out due to injury. Then Jones was going to fight Rashad Evans at a later event, but that too fell through, so Machida received the title shot against Jones at this event.

Speaking strictly from a marketing standpoint, a victory for Jones can go a long way to build up the division. As we have seen throughout the course of the year, the division really jumped to the forefront of the company, once Jones took over as champion. That isn’t to say that Machida would make a bad champion, but Jones as the younger prospect can grow with the division.