“As the game evolves, I don’t want to say everybody’s catching up, but everybody’s catching up.”
Anthony Smith has a rather interesting take on Jon Jones’ split decision win over Thiago Santos at UFC 239, which saw ‘Bones’ defend his light heavyweight title in the main event at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena.
It was arguably Jones’ most lackluster title defense to date and, speaking on a recent edition of MMA on Sirius XM, ‘Lionheart’ said Jones was unable to impose his will upon Santos because the game is finally catching up to the reigning light heavyweight champ and former pound-for-pound No. 1.
“Jon was so ahead of the game early in his career — he was kind of like a unicorn, he was just so much different,” Smith said, per BJPenn.com’s Tom Taylor. “As the game evolves, I don’t want to say everybody’s catching up, but everybody’s catching up. I don’t know how else to say it. I think that there’s enough tape out there on Jon that he’s running out of new things that people haven’t seen. When he first blew up and he was just running through people, I believe he’s one of the people that you can credit with the evolution of the fight game.
“I think that he levelled up the game just in terms of his ability to think on the fly, and I think it opened up everyone’s eyes and everyone’s minds to new stuff, but eventually you’re going to run out of stuff.
“I think we’ve gotten to who Jon Jones is,” Anthony Smith concluded. “I think we’ve seen him run his course of what he’s doing, and I’m not saying he’s not going to get better or get more dangerous if he adds more wrinkles. I just think that he’s not evolving as fast as the game is anymore. And I think before, he was moving faster than the rest of the game and I don’t think that is the case anymore.”
Smith, 30, dropped a unanimous decision to Jones earlier this year at UFC 235 but rebounded with a submission victory over former three-time title challenger Alexander Gustafsson at UFC Fight Night 153, submitting the Swede with a fourth-round rear-naked choke. The Factory X product was finished by Jones’ opponent, Thiago Santos, last year at UFC Fight Night 125.
There have been calls for Jones to accept an immediate rematch with Santos, but it’s more likely that the JacksonWink standout will take on Daniel Cormier in a lucrative trilogy bout. This, of course, pending Cormier’s championship rematch with Stipe Miocic, where the former Olympian will look to defend his heavyweight title in the UFC 239 main event.
UFC 241, which features Cormier vs. Miocic as the main event, takes place next month, Aug. 17 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.