Anthony Johnson is giving the edge to Jon Jones over Francis Ngannou.
Whether Jones ends up fighting Ngannou remains to be seen as the former is continuing to campaign for a bump in pay in order to fight the new heavyweight champion.
And while many observers in the combat sports world believes he’s doing so as he is scared of losing to Ngannou, Johnson — who was set to face Jones back in 2015 — believes the former light heavyweight king would come out on top in a potential fight.
“I think Jon (Jones) just has too many weapons,” Anthony Johnson told Helen Yee (via MMA News). “His team is great. His IQ is up there. You know he may not… And everybody was so hung-up on just knockouts. You know knockouts by Francis (Ngannou), which I get. I get that.
“But, there is still more to it than just a knockout. You can be a knockout artist and just get beat up. Like ‘DC’ (Daniel Cormier) isn’t a knockout artist, and he beat me up.”
“Rumble” went on to add further to that point by stating that Jones has shown he doesn’t need knockout power to outclass his opponents as he has done over the years.
In addition, he feels Jones deserves more respect.
“You know, you don’t have to knock everybody out to be great,” he explained. “And you know, Jon I think has all of the tools to beat Francis. I won’t say that he will finish him. But I think he can beat Francis. But, if Francis gets that one (punch), it can be a long night. Well, a short night for Jon if he gets hit.
“But people say that Jon hasn’t been tested, or that his jaw hasn’t been tested. Jon Jones has fought the who’s who of mixed martial arts. People aren’t realizing that. He’s just made it look easy because of his skill. So, I wish people would stop discrediting the man.”
Do you agree with Johnson?