UFC 235 Live Results

After a canceled UFC 233 and a UFC 234 event that lost its main event at the last minute, the UFC looks to put on a big night of action with a stacked UFC 235 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In the main event, Jon Jones defends the UFC light heavyweight championship against Anthony Smith. Jones will go down as one of the best MMA fighters of all time in the record books, with his first light heavyweight title reign lasting eight defenses — a UFC record. But Jones has been swarmed in controversy over the last few years, especially when it comes to drug testing. A positive test for Turinabol cost Jones his UFC 214 win against Daniel Cormier, which was Jones’ original second light heavyweight title win before the bout was overturned to a No Contest. This was one year after the originally planned rematch was scrapped on days’ notice after Jones tested positive for clomiphene and letrozole.

Jones regained the title at UFC 232 last December, stopping Alexander Gustafsson. After testing positive for Turinabol multiple times, from an effect that sees the metabolite “pulsing” throughout his body, the event was moved on less than a week’s notice from the T-Mobile Arena to The Forum in Inglewood, California. Jones met with the Nevada State Athletic Commission and received a one-fight license for UFC 235.

Smith, meanwhile, is coming off an incredible 2018 that saw the veteran MMA fighter’s stock rise. After a Fight of the Night against Thiago Santos at middleweight, Smith moved up to light heavyweight. Smith retired Rashad Evans at UFC 225 before scoring huge wins over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Volkan Oezdemir en route to earning the title shot.

Tyron Woodley defends the UFC welterweight title in the co-main event of the evening against Kamaru Usman. Woodley is unbeaten in his last seven fights and won the UFC’s 170-pound title from Robbie Lawler back at UFC 201 in July 2016. He’s defended the title twice against Stephen Thompson, against Demian Maia and most recently at UFC 228 against the then-unbeaten Darren Till. Meanwhile, Usman, winner of The Ultimate Fighter season 21, is unbeaten in the UFC Octagon and hasn’t lost a professional MMA bout since his second fight. Usman has scored victories over the likes of Leon Edwards, Sean Strickland, Maia and Rafael dos Anjos to earn his title shot.

UFC 235 also features the awaited UFC debut of former ONE and Bellator welterweight champion Ben “Funky” Askren, as he faces Lawler. Askren was the winner of Bellator’s season two welterweight tournament before defeating Lyman Good for the title in October 2010. He defended the title five times before joining ONE, whose welterweight title he won in August 2014. He defended the ONE title four times before retiring in November 2017 after a win over Shinya Aoki. Askren’s rights were acquired by the UFC in a trade with ONE in exchange for Demetrious Johnson. This will be Lawler’s first fight since a December 2017 bout with dos Anjos, a fight in which he tore his ACL.

UFC 235 also sees the return of Tecia Torres, who takes on Weili Zhang, and the return of former UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt, as he faces Pedro Munhoz.

UFC 235 Main Card:
UFC Light Heavyweight Championship: (c.) Jon Jones def. Anthony Smith via unanimous decision (48-44, 48-44, 48-44)
UFC Welterweight Championship: Kamaru Usman def. (c.) Tyron Woodley via unanimous decision (50-44, 50-44, 50-45)
Welterweight: Ben Askren def. Robbie Lawler via submission (bulldog choke) (Rd. 1, 3:20)
Women’s Strawweight: Weili Zhang def. Tecia Torres via unanimous decision (29-28, 30-27, 30-27)
Bantamweight: Pedro Munhoz def. Cody Garbrandt via KO (Rd. 1, 4:52)

UFC 235 Preliminary Card:
Featherweight: Zabit Magomedsharpiov def. Jeremy Stephens via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Light Heavyweight: Johnny Walker def. Misha Cirkunov via KO (Rd. 1, 0:36)
Bantamweight: Cody Stamann def. Alejandro Perez via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
Welterweight: Diego Sanchez def. Mickey Gall via TKO (Rd. 2, 4:13)

UFC 235 Early Prelim Card:
Middleweight: Edmen Shahbazyan def. Charles Byrd via TKO (Rd. 1, 0:38)
Women’s Bantamweight: Macy Chiasson def. Gina Mazany via TKO (Rd. 1, 1:49)
Women’s Strawweight: Hannah Cifers def. Polyana Viana via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)