{"id":37373,"date":"2026-03-21T21:12:05","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T21:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/The-Dragon-Mason-Jones-burns-Axel-Sola-in-thrilling-top-UFC-London-prelim-200532"},"modified":"2026-03-21T21:12:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T21:12:05","slug":"the-dragon-mason-jones-burns-axel-sola-in-thrilling-top-ufc-london-prelim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/the-dragon-mason-jones-burns-axel-sola-in-thrilling-top-ufc-london-prelim\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Dragon\u2019 Mason Jones burns Axel Sola in thrilling top UFC London prelim"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

Mason
\nJones<\/a> and Axel Sola<\/a>
\nproduced more spins than a washing machine.<\/p>\n

Serving as the preliminary headliner in the easiest call for \u201cFight
\nof the Night\u201d in recent memory, Jones and Sola (11-1-1, 1-1 UFC)
\ncollided in an absolute rip-snorter for three bloody, tantalizing
\nrounds. The two threw caution to the wind across 15 violent minutes
\nin their featured
\nUFC Fight Night 270<\/a> prelim on Saturday at the O2 Arena in
\nLondon. Jones (18-2, 1 NC; 4-2, 1 NC UFC) took home the grizzly
\nvictory with one score of 30-27 and a pair of 29-28 tallies, all in
\nhis favor, in a back-and-forth battle that will be remembered for
\nsome time.<\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Sola dazzled early with a spinning back fist that put the Welshman
\ndown but not out, and although Jones recovered to rip open a gash
\non Sola\u2019s cheek, he had plenty of ground to reclaim. Jones put
\nforth a full-throated effort, even launching a tornado kick to the
\nbody where he ended up in too close range. Jones constant attacks
\ntransformed the Frenchman\u2019s face to a crimson mask, as he picked up
\nsteam and drilled Sola with high kicks and knees on the jaw. Sola
\nwent to the well several more times with spins, but he never could
\ncatch Jones with another quite as cleanly.<\/p>\n

Jones ended the match firmly in the driver\u2019s seat, rocking the
\nFrench fighter repeatedly with head kicks and knees that oft-placed
\nSola on rubber legs. Sola gathered his thoughts to dump Jones
\nsquare on his head, but it did not shift the momentum, as Jones
\nshook out the cobwebs and unleashed a fury to conclude their banger
\nwith a veritable avalanche of offense. \u201cThe Dragon\u201d becomes the
\nfirst fighter to beat the former Ares FC champ as a pro.<\/p>\n

Nathaniel
\nWood<\/a> (23-6, 11-3 UFC) tangled with the debuting Losene
\nKeita<\/a> (16-2, 0-1 UFC) in an extremely tight featherweight
\ncontest, one that did not remotely reflect the betting line where
\nKeita closed as a favorite around -285. All three rounds could have
\ngone to either fighter, with the stats close and the intensity even
\ncloser. Both men had their successes in a tit-for-tat offering, and
\nwhen the dust settled, Wood swayed two of three judges to his side
\nto earn the split decision nod (28-29, 29-28, 29-28).<\/p>\n

The newcomer largely maintained a headhunting approach to score
\neffectively on \u201cThe Last Kingsman,\u201d doing some damage and bloodying
\nWood\u2019s nose but never truly hurting him. Some of Wood\u2019s best
\nresponses came courtesy of his jackhammering calf kick, where he
\nforced Keita to hit the deck multiple times by sweeping the leg.
\nThe judges only agreed that Wood won the first round, and their
\nopinions varied in Rounds 2 and 3.<\/p>\n

Springing the upset over the highly touted crossover athlete, Wood
\nfinds himself on a four-fight win streak. However, he has gone to
\nthe scorecards in 10 straight bouts.<\/p>\n

<\/center><\/p>\n

The prelims progressed with a heavyweight slog as the undefeated
\nMario
\nPinto<\/a> (12-0, 3-0 UFC) did just enough to prevail over late
\nreplacement Felipe
\nFranco<\/a> (10-2, 0-1 UFC). Portugal\u2019s Pinto, who came into this
\npairing with momentum on his side courtesy of three straight
\nknockouts, relied more on his wrestling than his slugging prowess.
\nThe action proved less-than-stellar, but Pinto got the job done
\nwith a trio of 29-28 scores on his side.<\/p>\n

Franco proved to be a sterner test than expected, with the
\nonce-beaten Brazilian light heavyweight standing up to anything the
\nfar larger Pinto threw at him. After some lackluster exchanges
\nreplete with plenty of lulls in the action, Pinto took \u201cNegao\u201d out
\nof the game by transitioning to his wrestling attack. While he did
\nnot manage to complete many takedowns, his approach and clinch
\ncontrol allowed him to take most of the sting out of Franco\u2019s
\npunches.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old who now trains in London remained unbeaten as a
\npro, winning his third in the Octagon and placing himself ever
\ncloser to the top 15 of the talent-starved division.<\/p>\n

Finally, Mantas
\nKondratavicius<\/a> (9-1, 1-0 UFC) celebrated his organizational
\ndebut, just not in the way he had hoped. The hard-hitting
\nLithuanian ended up going the distance for the first time in his
\ncareer as he beat up an exhausted Antonio
\nTrocoli<\/a> (12-7, 1 NC; 0-4 UFC) after three grueling rounds.
\nKondratavicius earned scores of 30-27, 29-27 and 29-27 all in his
\nfavor in a bout few will watch again.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old newcomer largely had his way with the Brazilian
\nover the course of the first two lopsided rounds, with
\nKondratavicius dropping Trocoli with a vicious elbow to the temple
\nthat nearly forced referee Rich Mitchell to step in. \u201cMalvado\u201d
\nsurvived and found himself motivated by his corner between rounds
\nto change his approach to an all-grappling attack. A pair of judges
\nwere swayed to award the final round to Trocoli, who had lost his
\nprevious three UFC outings, but it was not nearly enough to get the
\njob done. Both spent middleweights appeared relieved when time
\nelapsed.<\/p>\n

The matchup marked the first time that Kondratavicius had ever even
\nreached the third round as a pro, with none of his prior nine
\nappearances lasting longer than nine minutes and four seconds.<\/p>\n

In earlier action, heavyweight Brando
\nPericic<\/a> (6-1, 2-0 UFC)
\nsucked the air out of the O2 Arena by clobbering<\/a><\/strong> a
\nsloppy Louie
\nSutherland<\/a> (10-5, 0-2 UFC) with a lengthy barrage of punches
\nthat put the Brit away at 1:48 of the opening frame; Abdul-Kareem
\nAl-Selwady<\/a> (16-4, 1-1 UFC) outdueled a game but ultimately
\novermatched Shaqueme
\nRock<\/a> (11-3-1, 0-2 UFC) across three clear-cut rounds, picking
\nup the unanimous verdict (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) over his lightweight
\ncounterpart that had a bit of extracurricular drama after the final
\nbell; kicking off the day with a smokin\u2019 debut in front of her home
\ncrowd, Shanelle
\nDyer<\/a> (7-1, 1-0 UFC) clipped the wings of an overweight Ravena
\nOliveira<\/a> (7-4-1, 0-3 UFC) with a
\nhead kick, a bevy of knees and some powerful finalizing punches
\n1:17 into the second frame<\/a><\/strong> after a feeling-out first
\nround. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mason Jones and Axel Sola produced more spins than a washing machine. Serving as the preliminary headliner in the easiest call for \u201cFight of the Night\u201d in recent memory, Jones and Sola (11-1-1, 1-1 UFC) collided in an absolute rip-snorter for three bloody, tantalizing rounds. The two threw caution to the wind across 15 violent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37374,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}