The best and worst from UFC 239: Jones vs. Santos

#1 Worst: Jones’s performance brings everything into question

Jones' victory over Santos wasn't the most convincing win of his career

Okay, so I should start this bit by praising the performance of Thiago Santos, who fought excellently in what was by far the biggest and toughest fight of his career and who could quite possibly have dethroned Jon Jones had he not injured his knee early in the fight. But no offense to ‘Marreta’, who is clearly a hell of a fighter, a man in the conversation for the best MMA fighter of all time like Jon Jones perhaps shouldn’t have struggled so badly with Santos, who had only fought at 205lbs three times previously.

Sure, Jones probably did enough to just about eke out the decision, winning rounds 2, 3 and 4, but it was hardly a convincing showing. ‘Bones’ appeared to struggle with the kicking game of the challenger and although he was able to do a lot of damage with his own kicks, quite why Jones didn’t ever attempt to grapple with him is anyone’s guess. Jones, don’t forget, is perhaps the most effective wrestler in the division while Santos was submitted by Eric Spicely less than 3 years ago.

For me the performance has to lead to other questions; namely, is Jones suddenly past his prime? Is he now disinterested in performing to the best of his ability, leading to a showing where he was happy to eke out a decision? Or does his decline have more to do with the fact that he was always a PED user and not someone who accidentally dabbled in that murky world once or twice?

Overall, Jones didn’t look like the unbeatable monster he once was – and while it’d be nice to see someone dethrone him, Santos didn’t quite manage that and so the champion’s weak showing was the worst bit of this show to me.