Very good fight between Bones & Vitor. Vitor by far has put Jones in the most trouble in a fight & is probably the only fighter he has faced with the exception of maybe Bonnar who wouldn't start backing down from Jones's attacks.
He was very, very unlucky with that armbar. Jones somewhat got away with that one by stupid luck, when he realised he was about to get armbarred he did the wrong thing & tried to pull his arm out which allowed Vitor to straighten it, however in doing so when he half stood up Vitor started slipping down his arm & then Jones dropped him on his head. Also was rather unlucky there wasn't more time on the clock when he threw up that triangle attempt, if there had been another minute he might have had time to get it sunk in.
Credit to Jones though, after the armbar, you could visibly see that his arm was hurt.. even moreso when you saw him throw side kick after side kick, he was using that to keep Vitor back as he knew he didn't have the strength in his more powerful hand to stop him in his tracks if he pressed forward.
That was defiantly the first time we've seen Jones in any sort of trouble inside the cage & I'm talking real trouble, the point were he has had to adapt his gameplan mid-fight to survive & get the victory. Credit to Vitor as well, came into this fight with alot of people kinda asking why is a guy that hasn't fought at LHW in years getting a title shot.. and in turn he gave Jones the toughest fight of his career.
Vitor was kinda unlucky, I think Vitor's gameplan was to see what happened in the first, he'd go out & try to take Jones head off with punches.. however when Jones took him down that put an end to the gameplan for round one. Then rounds 2,3 & 4 Jones didn't actually take him down, Vitor pulled guard.. I don't know whether he did that because he sensed Jones's arm was hurt to exploit it, or whether that was his actual gameplan, to try to submit Jon from the guard. It was going well until Jackson said something to Jones about passing his guard, he then did it at the end of the 3rd & then finally in the 4th.
Wouldn't mind seeing Belfort stay at LHW for abit as there are some interesting fights for him if he plans another run at Jones which I wouldn't mind seeing. I imagine however Dana White has told him that his Middleweight 'ranking' won't be effected even if he fought Jones & lost before the fight, so perhaps he'll go straight back down & fight someone like Weidman.
Bisping/Stann was a good fight as well, Bisping just looked in my opinion an all round better fighter. Punished Stann repeatedly for having his hands at chest height by making him eat jabs & crosses, Stann's best striking outlet was his leg kicks, however in the fight I believe he didn't even land much more of those overall than Bisping. Was easily taken down after he began to tire, however Bisping didn't do any damage at all do him when he was on the ground.. but it did no doubt further cement his round victory. Dunno if that victory will be enough to get him the title shot he wants, however it certainly will have put him almost there.
I caught 2 prelim fights that were good as well TJ Grant & Evan Dunham was a great brawl, really excellent fight between those 2. Then the other fight I caught from the prelims was Vinny Magalhaes & Igor Pokrajac which was one by a pretty sweet armbar from Vinny.
