Thiago Santos Surprised by Speed of Jones’ Victory; Urges Caution Against Miocic

Even ex-Ultimate Fighting Championship title challenger Thiago Santos was surprised at how easy Jon Jones’ win was at UFC 285.

Ahead of Jones’ heavyweight championship encounter with Ciryl Gane, Jones invoked Santos’ name when discussing his former opponents. When Jones suggested Santos was arguably his toughest test, Santos replied positively about their five-round battle UFC 239 in 2019. Telling Sherdog about his expectations about Jones’ performance, Santos believed Jones would prevail. What he did not expect was the speed in which "Bones" did it, and he spoke again with Sherdog following the event.

“When Gane said he was lazy to train wrestling out of camp, I thought it was like a trap for Jones. But in the fight, we found out that it was true, and thanks to that JJ made it look so easy, which brightened [his win even more],” Santos remarked.

While Jones was able to handle Gane thanks to superior wrestling, “Marreta” believes that Jones’ next opponent of Stipe Miocic will be a much more difficult challenge.

“Stipe is good everywhere, and besides having an excellent wrestling level, he also has knockout power,” Santos noted. “If Jones tries to take him down in the very beginning, he will need to spend energy that he may need in the rest of the five rounds, so it will force him to strike. But even being a much more difficult challenge, I believe Jones will win.”

After the dust settled at UFC 285, many fans, fighters and media alike suggested that Jones had either earned or cemented his place as the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. The Brazilian is not so sure that one win up at heavyweight put Jones over his own top pick.

“No doubt Fedor Emelianenko is the greatest of all time,” Santos explained. “In second place I would put Jones and Anderson [Silva], in 3rd GSP [Georges St. Pierre] and 4th Demetrious Johnson.”

Most of the current champions in the UFC have a long way to go to catch Jones, Emelianenko or any of the others he listed. The former title challenger surveyed his previous roster, and believes that current beltholder and past foe Jamahal Hill might be one to watch as a potential future great. Hill is expected to face ex-champ Jiri Prochazka for the former’s throne sometime this year.

“I fought Jamahal,” Santos stated, who succumbed to strikes to Hill in the fourth round of their UFC on ESPN 40 headlining match. “Besides being a heavy puncher, he has an excellent punch absorption, also he has a very good range and is a southpaw. Also, he is pretty cautious, unlike Jiri who is kind of irresponsible on his approach, always coming to kill or get killed. Because of that, I believe Hill has more chance to hit a clean punch and decide the fight.”

Santos does not have all the time in the world to speculate on how former opponents will fare, however, as he has his first Professional Fighters League fight coming up in April. The Brazilian was keen on noting that the structure of the organization, in a pure tournament format, takes some of the burden away from having to sell fights. Most important is that Santos will be facing the same fighter no matter what, so it alleviates a lot of the trash talk often used to drum up fan interest.

“PFL’s style matches more with me,” Santos admitted. “Here, the show exempts the fighter [from selling] the fights using trash talk. We just must go there and put on a great show. Pure meritocracy. Only that takes a big truck from my back. I always hated to talk about my opponents. What I really like is to focus on the training and to do my job inside the cage.”

The man known as “Marreta” does not hide that one big inspiration to not renew with UFC was friend and teammate Antonio Carlos Jr., who claimed the light heavyweight strap in 2021 with the PFL.

“’Cara de Sapato’ is one of my best friends and training partners. Seeing how upset he got after being fired from UFC, and later seeing him winning one-million-dollar grand prix, was one of the biggest inspirations of my life,” Santos celebrated.

On April 1, Santos will take on 2022 PFL champion Rob Wilkinson in the co-main event of PFL’s first regular season event. He was excited about the opportunity, while confident about his abilities, and ready to throw down with the fighter from Tasmania.

“Facing the champion is an excellent opportunity. Actually, I’m coming from challenges against all top five of UFC, most of them in five-round fights, which gave me a lot of experience. No doubt, Wilkinson is a dangerous guy who deserves all respect. Heavy hands, good wrestling. By the way, his two defeats happened in UFC against two strikers that forced him to use his wrestling. But of course, he is a much better fighter now. All I can say is that I’m really happy and well-trained, ready to break into the door with both my feet, as we say in Brazil,” the Rio de Janeiro native concluded.