Ultimate Fighting Championship will hold a special media conference call today (Dec. 1, 2011) to promote UFC 140: Jones vs. Machida, which is scheduled to take place at the Canada Centre in Toronto for Dec. 10, 2011.
The call, which begins at 2 p.m. ET, will feature Jon Jones,Lyoto Machida, Frank Mir, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Tito Ortiz and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.
Jones is the current UFC light heavyweight champion. "Bones" has risen to the top of the light heavyweight heap in 2011, winning the title from Mauricio Rua and then recently defending it last month against Quinton Jackson.
His challenger is former champion, Lyoto Machida. "The Dragon" was awarded a title shot after a knocking out MMA legend Randy Couture in highlight reel fashion at UFC 129. He stepped up when Rashad Evans couldn't heal up his injured thumb in time.
Frank Mir is a former two-time UFC heavyweight champion and has boosted back into the title picture after consecutive victories over veterans Mirko Filipovic and Roy Nelson. He'll be rematching the resurgent Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, a former interim UFC heavyweight champion who lost his title to Mir in 2009.
Lastly, former UFC light heavyweight champion, Tito Ortiz, one fight removed from an emotional first round upset of Ryan Bader, will be taking on veteran Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, who's dropped two tough fights in a row to strong wrestlers.
We'll have complete updates of the UFC 140 conference call after the jump:
Brian Hemminger here. The call is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. eastern time.
2:15 p.m. - Had a bit of a delay and we're officially getting started now.
Jon Jones: This year's been awesome. I'm really not looking to 2012 yet. My primary goal right now is to enter 2012 while remaining champion.
Tito Ortiz: Being healthy is great. Being able to battle and train like I used to train when I didn't have any injuries. The surgeons did great work on me and with heart and determination, I've been able to do a lot of things and I'm looking forward to 2012.
Jon Jones: It's not about business. It's about passion and love. It's been about achieving goals the the thrill of achieving goals that I've set, strengthening me as a man and becoming a warrior and an athlete. I try to look at each fight with the same mentality that I had in my UFC debut. I don't want to fight the name, just the body. That's why I'm here.
Jon Jones: The biggest difference was i had to find a lot of southpaws to work with and what I basically did was use the guys that I already had and I had to mimic their styles to the best of my ability. Everything else has been pretty much the same. I've learned a lot about myself. I've trained better and I eat better and I picked up the knowledge of the Ryan Bader camp, the Shogun camp and the Rampage camp and I've picked up so much and everything's in order.
Jon Jones: I try not to worry. Lyoto is a new challenge and you have nothing to fear when you're prepared. Know yourself and know your opponent and that's the mentality I have. When you do your work and you study, you have no fear.
Jon Jones: It hasn't really been able to soak in. So many great, awesome things have happened to me in my career and it's been an awesome, phenomenal year.
Jon Jones: After this next win, I'll definitely relax with my two brothers and my mom and dad and go on a family cruise. Our family hasn't had much our whole lives and we've never spent a legitimate family vacation together and I think it's high time we do something nice together. We're trying to plan a family vacation and I'm looking forward to that so much.
Lyoto Machida: I brought in Glover Texiera and King Mo and we created a whole strategy. Having those guys around me really helped.
Frank Mir: I think the heavyweight division is not that deep of a pool and if I can win on Saturday night, that's three wins in a row and I'll get up there again.
Frank Mir: The UFC came forward and offered me the fight. There was a lot of words and circumstances surrounding the last victory as far as illnesses from Nogueira's camp.
Frank Mir: I think that anytime, if they can explain their performance, if you've got an injured hand, maybe that's why you couldn't box more. You may not have performed 100 percent because of an injury, but you can't blame a loss on the injury.
Frank Mir: After so many fights, I don't think there's that much of a style change. He has good boxing on his feet and jiu-jitsu on the ground. After such a devastating win in Brazil, I'm sure confidence is higher and that could be the difference between doing something well or not. Sometimes landing something technical is a confidence factor.
Tito Ortiz: I fought for free when I first fought for the UFC. I was an amateur in college and had to keep my amateur status.
Frank Mir: It wasn't for free, but when I got done paying back everybody, I probably took a loss.
Lyoto Machida: It's something that happens. There's ups and downs at points. I've learned a lot from winning the title and losing it and then losing to Rampage. I'm a completely different fighter now.
Big Nog: We need a big moment right now. With Junior's fight, we had millions of people watching the fight and MMA is the second sport in Brazil. This is a chance to have the fourth belt in Brazil and the timing is great. It's a good time and we support the sport and do the best as Brazilian fighters.
Lyoto Machida: This is a grea ttime for MMA in Brazil. New sponsors are coming in and new companies. Now that the sport is on Globo, all the fans can watch and everyone has access to it. It's a great moment.
Tito Ortiz: I recovered the next day after Ryan Bader. After the Rashad fight, I ate the knee to the chest and that bruised my heart a bit. It just depends on how the fight turns out. Sometimes it's not too bad. It's just what kind of fighter you've had.
Tito Ortiz: My wrestling is snapping now and it's easier to get the single, double legs and body locks that put my neck in jeopardy. It's tough to get my wrestling back to that level again. My wrestling is not as good but my boxing is better. I've been in this game almost 15 years now and my body has taken some damage. Cardio-wise, my timing for my boxing and my kickboxing, I think I've done it for this fight and I've done it the right way.
Lyoto Machida: I haven't spoken to Segal in a little bit. I spoke when we were up in Toronto for the pre-fight press conference and we haven't spoken yet but who knows, he could be there.
Jon Jones: Fortunately, Greg has no other fighters fighting the week of my fight so I'll have his full attention during the week. Greg has a lot of friends in Toronto, Canada and we'll find a beautiful place to meditate before this fight.
Tito Ortiz: I'm very excited to fight in front of the Canadian fans and put on my skills and get my hands raised.
Frank Mir: I've been up to Canada and I've always had a good time. I was up there for the last card and we get recognized and it's great.
Jon Jones: I think it's important to be yourself and put your best foot forward. As far as my image, I don't worry about my image too much, I'm just myself. I think that's good enough. I'm a pretty solid guy with good intentions and I think I want to let the mainstream know that we are good guys and intelligent athletes and we let the world know how much training and education goes into each bout. Little thing like that. I always try to make sure to have a suit on and just try to portray our sport in a positive light. Mainstream America has a lot of learning to do about us.
Frank Mir: Not so much because it felt like there were more distractions before my last bout with Nogueira. You're taking care of other guys and trying to help out and once that was set up, by the time it was two weeks before, it hit me that "now it's time for me." There's been no distractions this time.
Big Nog: For the last fight, we had more distractions and we'd just finished the show a couple months before in Vegas and it was hard to train over there. When I came to Brazil, I didn't feel like the camp was really good. I feel more popular, more explosive and more confident now. I'm more focused on what I'm doing and I've got my sparring partners and been able to train the way I wanted. I feel this camp is better than the last one and I know Frank's improved since the last time I fought him but I'm in shape and I'm ready to go and I'm excited to fight.
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