Jon Jones successfully defended his light heavyweight belt against Thiago Santos in the UFC 239 main event.

Jon Jones vs. Thiago Santos was competitive and the champion did enough to keep his belt.

Santos got off to a great start against the champ, attacking the legs and causing Jones to limp as well as change stances. His success was short lived as Jones checked a kick in the second round, injuring the leg of Santos. Jones proceeded to walk down the challenger while out-pointing him for pretty much the rest of the fight. Santos had bursts of offense here and there, but never truly hurt Jones after that opening round.

What was the highlight of the fight?

The highlight of the fight is when Jones dropped Santos with an elbow in the third round. It was vintage Jones and the UFC even tweeted out a highlight of it. There was also a moment in the second round when Jones knocked over a hobbling Santos with a clean head kick. Jones also hit a few spinning attacks here and there, and landed an elbow that cut open the scalp of Santos.

Where do these two go from here?

Jon Jones is once again cleaning out the light heavyweight division. There are a couple of hot prospects on the rise that have been catching bodies, but might not quite be ready for the caliber of a Jon Jones. Perhaps Dominick Reyes and Luke Rockhold’s decapitator Jan Blachowicz could face each other in a title eliminator with the winner facing Jones. There is always the possible trilogy fight with heavyweight champ Daniel Cormier. That fight would do great numbers and the build up would be loads of fun as well. If he goes the dream-fight route, then perhaps a bout with Anderson Silva is still a possibility, although most of the interest in that ship has sailed at this point.

Thiago Santos had a great opening round and remained dangerous throughout. He put up a respectable effort and his attributes are tailor made for light heavyweight. Already owning a middleweight finish over the #3 ranked light heavyweight Anthony Smith makes a rematch between the two at 205-pounds a fun look. Taking on the #4 ranked Dominick Reyes is also a possibility. Honestly, with the way the light heavyweight division is set up, it wouldn’t take much for Santos to get right back to a title shot.

Watch now, later, or never?

It’s totally fine if you were to watch this one later on. It isn’t riddled with wow moments and Jones kind of just ]coasts his way through the fight. It’s still worth a watch because Jon Jones is poetry in motion. He is one of the greatest combat sports athletes that has ever done it, so missing any of his matches wouldn’t be tolerated for a true fight-nerd.