Jon Jones Retains Light Heavyweight Belt In Split Decision Against Thiago Santos

Jon Jones had a close five-round battle with Thiago Santos on Saturday, with Jones edging the victory via split decision to win the fight and retain his UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. From UFC 239 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, Jones lost at least two rounds on all three judges scorecards, with the score being 49-48, 49-48 and 49-48, with one of the scorecards going towards Santos.

A turning point in the fight was early when Santos injured a leg. He continued to throw kicks but would stumble and fall down numerous times in the bout. Santos had flurries of punches throughout the fight, as both fighters didn’t engage as much as possible.

“Boy he is tough,” Jon Jones said after the fight. He apologized to fans and supporters in the interview as well. He claimed that Santos’ best chance of winning as via KO, hence why he didn’t engage so much.

In the co-main event of UFC 239, Amanda Nunes defeated Holly Holm in a one round TKO victory. Nunes retained her Bantamweight Championship for the fourth time in her career.

Amanda Nunes Stops Holly Holm In One Round To Defend Bantamweight Championship

Amanda Nunes made another defense of her Bantamweight Championship, picking up her second first round finish in a row, defeating Holly Holm. At UFC 239 in the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, Nunes landed a head kick which dropped Holm and concluded the bout in just under five minutes.

“I told my coach I wanna knock her out the same way she knocks people out,” said Nunes in the post-fight interview.

This became the fourth defence of the UFC Bantamweight Championship by Nunes. In between those wins was another fight where she claimed the UFC Featherweight Championship, defeating Cris Cyborg back in December.

The fight took place in the co-main event slot of UFC 239, with the main event being Jon Jones versus Thiago Santos for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship.

Israel Adesanya Set To Face Robert Whittaker In Middleweight Unificaton Bout

The UFC Middleweight and Interim Middleweight Championship will be unified on October 5th, when Robert Whittaker takes on Israel Adesanya at UFC 243. Set to take place in Australia, it will be the third time within a year that the promotion held an event within the country.

The fight was formally announced on Friday at one of UFC’s quarterly press conferences, previewing many of the big upcoming fights. The press conference was hosted by Dana White and was in the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“He’s fought twice in the last maybe three years. I’ve been busy,” said Adesanya when comparing himself to Whittaker. The Aussie defended himself, saying “It’s just one of those things, I got sick and you can’t help that.” Adesanya responded to that by claiming he fought through a knee injury in his last appearance.

Israel Adesanya has had an electric year and a half, defeating top contenders in Derek Brunson, Anderson Silva and Kelvin Gastelum. Robert Whittaker’s last fight was at UFC 225, where he got his first Championship defence over Yoel Romero.

The press conference featured other big names in the UFC like Daniel Cormeir, Stipe Miocic, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Dustin Poirier, Max Holloway and Frankie Edgar.

7/7/19 8:01 PM EST Correction: Venue removed as it is not confirmed yet.

Dana White’s Contender Series Season 3 Episode 2 Full Report

Last week on Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series we only had four fights on the card. For the first time this season we had a five fight card, with a main event between two fighters getting a second chance on the show. Let’s see who got UFC contracts after their performances.

Bout 1: Victor Reyna (10-3) vs. Miguel Baeza (6-0) (Welterweight)

In the first bout, we had Victor Reyna versus Miguel Baeza in a Welterweight bout. Despite the weight class, Reyna came in 7 pounds over the limit. After two minutes of uneventful stand-up, Baeza dropped Reyna with a right hand. The fight went to the ground where Baeza was in top position. Reyna tried getting up, letting Baeza take the back and try for a rear naked choke. They stood up in clinch where Reyna escaped the submission. At the start of the second round Reyna landed a punch which made Baeza fall. He got up shortly after and clinched up with Reyna. While Baeza had tons of dominant strikes throughout the round, at the end he was taken down twice by strikes. The second time he went down due to knees but was saved by the bell, with Reyna wanting the fight to be called. In the third round, Reyna was coming forward with strikes consistently. Reyna was landing shots from top position but got caught in a triangle choke as the fight ran out of time. All three judges gave Miguel Baeza the nod on their scorecards (29-28, 29-28 & 29-28).

My Scorecard:

Fighter	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Total
Reyna	9	9	10	28
Baeza	10	10	9	29

Bout 2: Miles Johns (8-0) vs. Richie Santiago (7-1) (Bantamweight)

The next bout was a Bantamweight contest. Miles Johns put his undefeated record against Richie Santiago. The first round had explosive fists from both fighters. Johns landed a takedown two minutes into the bout. In the opening moments of the second round, Santiago was knocked down by punches. He went to the ground to try for a hold but eventually brought it back to stand-up. He threw a few more punches and then landed another takedown. In the third round, Johns landed punches and knees that brought Santiago to the floor. Santiago hung on and stopped the roll that Johns was on. After they were on the ground for a little the referee stood them up. Both tired, they traded strikes until the fight came to a close. Miles Johns was given the unanimous decision win (30-27, 30-27, 30-26).

My Scorecard:

Fighter	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Total
Johns	10	10	10	30
Santiago	9	9	9	27

Bout 3: Michael Lombardo (8-1) vs. Kyle Daukaus (6-0) (Middleweight)

In the first round, another undefeated fighter in Kyle Daukaus fought Michael Lombardo. After both fighters fought in stand-up and clinching up against a cage, Daukaus tried for a guillotine from bottom position. They got back up but went back down shortly after as Daukaus threw Lombardo down. On the ground in the second round Daukaus showed a variety of submission moves on the ground, making him dominant throughout the round. In the final round, Daukaus got a takedown. He tried for submissions for a long time, having Lombardo completely on the defence throughout. He put in a rear naked choke at the end of the third round that Lombardo endured although it was close. Kyle Daukaus won the fight quite decisively (30-25, 30-26 & 29-27).

My Scorecard:

Fighter	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Total
Lombardo	9	9	8	26
Daukaus	10	10	10	30

Bout 4: Justin Gonzales (9-0) vs. Zach Zane (12-7) (Featherweight)

Attempting to continue the trend of undefeated fighters winning, Justin Gonzales fought Zach Zane. Right off the bat, Gonzales landed some hard strikes. On the ground, Gonzales stayed on top of Zane for most of the round. In the second round, Gonzales caught a kick and landed punches while holding onto the leg. On the ground, Gonzales tried for a rear naked choke. It never got put on well enough for a bout to end. Seconds into the final round Gonzales landed yet another takedown. They got back to their feet for a while where Gonzales landed a knee and some punches before landing yet another takedown. The fight went all 15 minutes with Justin Gonzales winning unanimously (30-26, 30-26 & 30-26).

My Scorecard:

Fighter	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Total
Gonzales	10	10	10	30
Zane	9	9	9	27

Bout 5: Alton Cunningham (7-1) vs. Tony Johnson (7-2) (Light Heavyweight)

The final bout of this episode was between people who didn’t have the best outcome in their last DWTNCS bookings. Alton Cunningham lost via stoppage in his first Contender Series fight. Also worth noting that was a Middleweight fight. Tony Johnson was taken off his Contender Series fight after being injured weeks before. On this show, they both had a second chance. Both fighters had hard strikes right off the bat. Johnson seemed to take control with punches and knees. Cunningham landed a takedown which slowed down the fight. There was a huge swelling above Cunningham’s right eye that started to develop in the first round. The second round had a lot of fighting up against the cage. After being up against the cage for a long time the referee separated the fighters. They exchanged punches at the end before the horn went. The decision for this bout was all three judges giving the win to Tony Johnson (29-28, 29-28 & 29-28).

My Scorecard:

Fighter	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Total
Cunningham	9	10	10	29
Johnson	10	9	9	28

At the end of the night Dana White decided that Miguel Baeza and Miles Johns will sign to the UFC. Baeza gave an emotional interview afterwards talking about how he does everything for his family.

Kyle Busch Wins Boyd Gaming 300 in NASCAR Overtime

Less than 24 hours after his Gander Outdoors Truck Series win, Kyle Busch was in victory lane once again, winning the Boyd Gaming 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The win came after two NASCAR Overtimes, with Busch staying ahead of John-Hunter Nemechek to close out the race.

Busch overcame some obstacles to win the race. He started in the top 10 but had to pit under green early on as a wheel was loose. He worked his way up and took the lead on lap 112, battling with Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick for a long time. After Tyler Reddick and Christopher Bell got caught up in an incident during the first Overtime, Busch started on a front row with Nemechek to win.

Stage 1 went to Cole Custer and Stage 2 was won by Tyler Reddick. Both stage wins came with a lead over a lap ahead of the second place driver.

“It’s cool to be able to back up Christopher’s win last week and bring the Supra back to victory lane,” said Busch after he became the second driver to win an Xfinity race in a Toyota Supra. The car model was only debuted in the Xfinity series at Daytona in February.

On Sunday the NASCAR Cup Series races the Pennzoil 400 from Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The Xfinity series returns next week on Saturday from ISM Raceway with the Phoenix 200.

Kyle Busch Wins Second Consecutive Truck Race, Winning The Stratos 200

Similarly to Kyle Busch’s performance last week in Atlanta, Nevada raised driver performed a full stage sweep on Friday night at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Busch kept the lead for most of the race, losing positions due to pit stop only.

The 134 lap race was split into two 30 lap stages and a 74 lap finale. The stages ending caused yellow flags, but besides them, there was only one other flag, which was waved on lap 6 due to Sheldon Creed spinning.

During the race Busch would often pit and take more tires than his competitors, making him lose positions. This was the intentional move though as he would speed through the pack and regain first place shortly after. Busch won the race a second ahead of second place finisher Brett Moffitt.

NASCAR has a triple-header in Vegas this weekend, with the Xfinity race tomorrow and the Monster Energy Cup Series race on Sunday. After three straight weeks of truck racing, the Gander Outdoors Truck Series will now take a short break, not returning until March 23rd at Martinsville Speedway.