UFC 239: Inside the Octagon - Jones vs Santos

On today's show we preview the main event of UFC 239 between UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Bones Jones and Thiago Magetta Santos widely considered one of the greatest of all time. Jones began 2019 with another title defense after a dominant victory over Anthony Smith and has time and time again been able to stop the offense of the best fighters on planet Earth looking to continue his reign. Jones returns to action to put his belt on the line once again this time against an aggressive veteran who is on the trail of destruction on his path to the title since moving on from an impressive campaign at middleweight Mahetta Santos has opened up On his way to title contention with an impressive streak of three consecutive knockouts, the Brazilian power puncher now has his first chance at UFC gold and the chance to be the first to topple the undisputed light heavyweight team Hello and welcome to ufc inside the

octagon

where we bring you an in-depth analysis of the big fights in ufc john gooden alongside dan hardy and this is for the ufc light heavyweight title dan we have jon

jones

, who has appeared many times on this program facing a new challenger for this one, thiago

santos

, the last time we saw mr

jones

, he was fighting anthony smith, there was a lot of analysis of course, but we never really saw what anthony smith was capable of.

I think when you face Jon Jones, there's that curse that, in my opinion, almost Thiago Santos has to be true to himself and bring all those wild characteristics to this fight. Yeah, I mean, it might work out for you to be able to see Anthony Smith. He fought Jon Jones before he stepped in there because with Smith's performance you could see the frustration in Smith, certainly after the fight he knew that he didn't go in there and gave the best performance ever. He didn't give him the performance of it. He was very defensive. And if Santos is fighting the same way, then you know it's going to be a long night for him too.

He has to remember the things that were effective in all the fights that led to the world title and continue like that. As hard as it is with John Jones and this weird voodoo control he has over people, it would seem like this, well, let's start with the facts and statistics, let's start at the top and then den 31 is still just 31. It's incredible. think because you know, you look at the work he's done on the people he's already beaten, you know and we were discussing before the show, he already cleaned up the division, yeah, like he cleaned up the division, it took a little while. and now he's back to take out all the new contenders again and he's still in his prime and wait he's still younger than most of his opponents he's fighting I mean look at this 35 he had less experience than Anthony Smith, you know, I mean.

It's crazy to think where Jon Jones is and what he's capable of. That's one of the main reasons why he's been so effective with that 84-inch reach and being able to use the 84-inch reach not just to its fullest extent. but also using it to cover as he advances, which we'll talk about in a second. I think working against his 84 inch reach in this fight will be a benefit for him because the more space Santos has, the better right, but for Santos in this fight, you know if he's at the end of that range, that's where he needs to tighten his grip. trigger, your focus in this fight should be to damage Jon Jones and cause pain early.

He hovers just to remind Jon Jones that this is a competitive fight and that he's not going to slide like he has in his last two fights. Yeah, I think we're all surprised at what Jones was able to do against Gustavsson and then do that to Smith too, the pattern seems to continue to be able to do the same thing with Santos and he's the one who has to break it. Yes, we also have a second page for these stats that will actually describe the guy. of fighters who aren't going to bother highlighting this time, but half the average fight length for saints, he also has a takedown average of 1.51 versus 0.26 for jones, which is just ridiculous.

However, I would highlight it to highlight and ask you to explain why I put this at 67 is above average, yes that is satiago

santos

taking down the defense, but you know for the remaining percentage that was taken down, it is getting back on its feet , spends less than 10 of his time face up and when on his back. back, he's not, he's not attacking from behind, he's defending, he's looking to get back up looking to kick or slide to the fence, so 67 breaks down the defense with, you know, eight percent of his time on the ground of Backs, I think Jon.

Jones is going to try to change that in this fight. I think he's going to try to take the safest route against someone who is very volatile and very, very explosive, and this is why the takedown rate is much higher. for all the clean shots that jon jones lands to get clean knockouts, santos often knocks people out with momentum, he knocks people down with momentum, you know he hits them with kicks that send them to the canvas and they come back up and then they get hit with 10 more shots, so I think that's really why he's taken down higher ratios, but yeah, as far as technical ability goes, that's where Jon Jones has the advantage and that's why he can have a longer average fight time. and he still has the championship belt on his shoulder while santos spends a lot less time in the

octagon

being more effective while he's there but there's an element of recklessness to that that could be exploited by jones well let's get to it then we will and we'll start with champion jon jones, he has this ability to control fights like no one else and he really starts from the bell where he just suffocates you, doesn't let you start or that's it.

What we've seen in his most recent performance, yes, it is, and it seems like he's become more and more refined at it. You know, you go back to his previous fights and he was a little nicer. to find out as you go that there's a lot more direction now that he's realized what he's been effective at over the years and kind of creates this. I don't know, this will be a strange visualization for you, but he creates this kind of bubble around himself and it's like this kind of thorny cloud that he tries to impose on people, he drives them to the fence and they know that there is a limit there that Jon Jones can touch them and they can't touch him and he tries to keep it right in that semi-permeable membrane that allows him to control, you know you can get through that membrane, but only when I say and with that, with that intimidation, with that control and those that itch, you know how unpleasant it is.

Using thrusting techniques, he is able to slowly walk people down and consume the octagon around them until they feel like they are suffocating in a small box and, you know, someone as explosive as Anthony Smith was just confined. He didn't actually fight on that show because Jon Jones had effectively surrounded him with the potential threat and there are two different ways to fight someone like Santos if you step in against Santos and say he's explosive. He's powerful, he likes momentum, I mean, I've fought a couple guys that fight with momentum, Mike Swick was the first one that came to mind, I knew I had to give him some space to start his attack, so Imagine, imagine John Jones approaching this fight to be a bit of a fire blanket.

Yeah, instead of giving Santos the space and trying to stay away from his weapons, you just stack them up, put them out and we've seen moments early in Santos' career where Uriah Hall comes to mind, there were points all over the place. the fight in which your Rahul was walking forward with his hands down offering his face and since he was standing within the range of Santos' kicks, you could see that it made him uncomfortable, so he is trying to back away. get up and move and make space and you know that's where jon jones can really exploit that because he can force santos to move back and fight awkwardly, but if he employs that kind of suffocating technique and I mean that in a surprising sense with The Guns the ones you are referring to, how does Santos find that space to be able to use some of his weapons?

Well, he can't move in straight lines, that's the first thing he should consider if you're moving in a straight line. line you're going to hit fences all day you have to move laterally you have a circle and I would say if I was training saints I would say go and watch the first round of gustafson against jones the first fight The only time in Jones' career I felt like he was chasing the fight. It was the first time I saw someone lead the dance as they moved as if Santos could stay outside, keep changing the angle on him, and keep cutting. on that front leg, there are a lot of benefits to disabling that front leg to slow down Jon Jones, slow down his forward progression, slow down his backward progress if Santos decides to attack, make him more of an easy target, this fight against uh blah it's perfect.

I mean, obviously the knockout was a punch, but that was due to the fact that it was perfect, perfectly stopped, it was all due to the fact that Santos was very patient in this fight, which I'm sure we'll talk about in a moment. whereas, at the beginning, as he steps back and cuts off that front leg of Yan, if you can shoot this knee across the center line, there's nothing you can come back to, you know, instead, in self-defense whenever . you're parrying techniques, you always parry through the body like you're throwing your right hand at me, I want to parry that way because I parry it this way, I'm opening the rest of your body to attack, so now vulnerable to your entire left side, so with this attack, if you're cutting off that front leg and you're turning John Jones' leg, it's going to take Jon Jones a second to reset before he can do anything before he can even start moving forward, yeah, so that goes a It will be a huge benefit for him to just hit that lead leg, taking away some of his mobility and it will also allow him to move laterally and probably get away with a few things before Jon Jones closes him against the fence.

There will be times when he will feel that fence against his back and there should be a little bit of panic there, he needs to get off the fence, he can't get stuck there because if he does, John Jones can eat him in that position. But if you can move, if you can create space and cut that lead leg, the rest of your game opens up from that, let's say Santos is throwing these kicks, we have seen that one of the most effective and energy efficient ways of Mr. Jones it's a ground fight it's using that ridiculous reach it's starting to catch yeah pushing you and getting you on your back yeah he can practically lift his ankle without ducking at that point you know what I mean so if you're kicking his leg and especially if it's starting to have that effect where it starts to itch and starts to affect his movement, he will start to try to solve that problem, yes, so if Thiago Santos has solved what has created that problem for Jon Jones, then he will start to think of ways to solve it and catching kicks is a huge benefit for him, it is much safer to catch low kicks than any other kick because if you are catching a body kick, to some extent you have to eat some of the power to get your around him with the arm, but taking kicks and running people to the ground, taking that leg out from under him will be a huge benefit for Jones in this fight, not only will it allow Jones to bring the best part of his game in this fight, which believe.

It's her ground and strike, but it will also discourage Thiago Santos from throwing those kicks and if you can force Santos to throw punches instead of kicks, Joan Jones will find her way in this fight much quicker because even though Santos is powerful with her hands , it's reckless, they work. as individual weapons that are not attached to his body, so he throws them when he sees fit, whereas Jones is a much more calculated effort, so I would say to eliminate the unpredictabilities, if Jon Jones can put Santos on the ground again. Let's go with the fire blanket idea, you know, fireproof their movement, then fireproof their attack and Jones putting people on the ground like this, being able to overpower them and control them from the top position, we don't really know what Jones is. what he is capable of doing on the court, we haven't had anyone who has fully tested it.

I would say what we've seen in the Jones fight is that we had some problems with Gustavson in the first round, things that I would say Santos can replicate and we can. I've seen Jones taken down a couple of times, but he still has 95 takedown success and has fought the best, so we still don't really know the full extent of his game and I would say that if it were. Jon Jones and I want to fight regularly and I know I'm fighting a lot of these contenders who are now very powerful and quite unorthodox. You have to stop starting to reduce the risks, which is what we saw in gsp, and that is why he held his belts for so long, well there is much more to discuss between champion jon jones and challenger chargo santos who comes next from the break welcome back to ufc inside the octagon where we are talking about the light.fightsfor the heavyweight title at ufc 239 john jones versus thiago santos so far we've talked about how jon jones really smothers his opponents and then we went on to say that chargo santos needs to find some space, maybe also employ some leg kicks, but to counter that we know that Jon Jones can catch the counter, he helps you get down horrible ground and pounds, but then we have to assume that Thiago Santos does not want to be under John Jones at any point in this fight and what evidence do you have of What is capable of achieving it?

Going back to his feats, he does it, he does some things instinctively and technically that are very useful in this fight before we start the next video. The first thing I want to say is that the height difference between opponents can change the difference in a defensive world physical height physical height so you take daniel cormier, who is 510 beefy, it's hard to compress that frame in any direction, you can put daniel cormier on the ground anyway and try to compress it and it won't crush it too much, right? Jon Jones, on the other hand, is built like a giraffe.

If you stick his head into the ground, if you're strong enough, you'll bend his stance, so the benefit of Jon Jones being taller will be useful for Thiago Santos to use. this post on the head which he actually uses very well now look at this right away he goes straight for that head control and the reason he does this is to try to keep his opponent away from controlling his hips if he had not had this hand pole on the back of the merchant's head, Mursha would have climbed onto it and would have been able to maintain control of these hips and would have prevented Santos from getting back on his feet so that pole on the back of his head was correct. there it allows you to just create that space, it allows you to hold a space while you get the rest of your body back, you kick the TV, you get the rest of your body out of danger by holding that position, then you start because you always have an attack mentality and then you start to think about how he can turn this into an attack, let's look at the play until he gets up and rolls around, I mean, Merchant does a great job of putting him down, but look at the pressure on the back of his head and then he starts punishing you and a Once you start to slow down, he's going to keep that pressure on the head posts or the hips or the hands and he's going to hit the posts and he's going to hit and this reckless attack when you missed a couple of takedowns and now this guy is flying at you with decks. like there's panic there, you start panicking with a shot like this, then he starts posting in the head and starts picking you apart.

I think this will be a great benefit for Santos, for two reasons, one, because he must assume that they will take him down. from his kick and two, he can't not throw his kick because they could take him down because that's Jon Jones voodoo, if he starts thinking right, if I throw my jab, John Jones will hit me if I throw my kick. take me down, then he just doesn't do anything, he has to take risks and he has to have fall solutions to take those risks, so the risk of throwing a kick is that someone will change levels and try to take him down.

The benefit of that is that he already has a solution for that post in his head and getting back to his feet and if he can land a couple of takedowns, if he can tire Jones out, if he can attack Jon Jones while he's trying to get demolitions. there are so many opportunities for santos to use this wild and reckless style to catch jones that it is unlikely that he will knock out jon jones with a single punch santos is not the type of person who goes well this is the perfect punch to get out of the knockout he doesn't He's the guy who throws a punch and another punch and another punch and then you start to cover up and back away and as his confidence increases and his momentum increases and his power increases then people start to panic and they close their eyes and their hands start doing this and then he goes around the guard and hits you with the 10, 12, 15 shot that he throws, that's where he'll get Jon Jones and just a little correction, you said the decks before if you're if you're part of Jackson Wink , it's not malice, he comes with a sledgehammer, um, but let's say like a road, so my head is standing up, but one thing is for sure that Jon Jones has proven.

What matters to us is that he always seems to be a couple of steps ahead, yes, so you know that the fighters will try to get back on their feet and when they have done it against him, sometimes they are in 100 danger and this is again where the joy Jon Jones and Jon Jones' confidence come into play if you notice that Santos is uncomfortable under pressure, you can take him down whenever you want and Santos will still fight to get back on his feet. jon jones can impose that cycle on santos to tire him out, slow him down and make him vulnerable and there are only so many times you can get on your head and fight your way back to your feet before you start to feel him in your arms and that's where jon jones it becomes dangerous because He will wait until you start to break, He will wait until there is an opportunity, and He will force that cycle on you until that opportunity becomes available.

This is the kind of thing that I see here as a huge danger for santos as he stands up, jon jones, whether it's grabbing his neck or circling to his back, literally, grabbing yourself, literally grabbing him, I mean, I think that he still has Machida's head under his arm, so, I mean, he's holding on to it. letting go of that and then there is no remorse at the end of this, come on it goes as you can imagine with the drop app that followed the squeeze, you can imagine how strong the squeeze was and even if santos is able to defend his neck does a circle with the head facing out this is the next stage there is a cutting glove fix the elbows and this is this with jon jones there are three ranges of elbows with jon jones most people don't have three ranges of technique some people are just one range Jon Jones has three ranges for his elbows so you have the glove to share one range where it's right in front of you and then you have the Anthony Smith range where it's in contact with your hands but you're still against it. the fence then moves into Rashad Evans' range where he is allowing you room to move and can still get over your guard and cut you off with his elbows.

The cycle that Santos could be trapped in in this place could not only not only steal consciousness, but could be brutally devastating, I mean, he could be separated from John Jones in this position, so not only does he not want to be trapped against the fence, but you don't want to get stuck in that cycle. where jon jones is just going to undermine him until he's done, yeah, and if you've been watching jon jones's social media, he's also been working the bag with just his elbows, so you know he comes prepared for exactly that, um , but we haven't seen much of Thiago Santos on this show and I think it's worth remembering some of his Hollywood stuff, his real highlights because they excite us, like the fireworks, exactly that, exactly, yeah, it's a lot of fun to see and he is a real raw talent and there are a lot of benefits to being that raw talent because, like I said, he doesn't have the technical ability to beat Jon Jones in a kickboxing fight or in a grappling fight or in a clinch. in a work match or a wrestling match, what he does have is this wild card ability of just throwing fire at Jon Jones in all directions and there are certain things about that that stand out.

He is a long time capoeira practitioner and that stands out because his kicks are much better than his punches, the kick he is kicking is by far the best part of his game and what I like is how he uses it to push to the people towards the fence, look at this against frame, let me play it before I show you. You have the aerial shot because you can see what he did there and the reason I like this is because he fights on both sides and because he is southpaw like me, but he fights from an orthodox stance most of the time. that when using switches to use my front leg, he avoids it by taking a step, taking a step or taking a step back and as we have seen, Jon Jones can be a little lazy and can choose and be relaxed and sometimes it you will see.

I'll just take a step back, those are the moments where I feel like Santos can fill that space with a step forward and then he's ready to shoot and if he can, if he can do that, he'll cover a lot more distance in the future and he can force jon jones to get into a choke point here so you can see here with marco he went around it to this side now marcotte feels like the window between saints and the fence that whole space is there he doesn't want to go this way because you can see the little space there is, so he will be forced to turn in this direction almost unconsciously, which is where Santos forces him to walk towards a kick and, as I said before, it is not necessarily the kick that does the damage, but rather starts the cycle. of damage then he ended up with something else but here he walks to the side open this door look how wide it is we can see where the referee is here it's obvious that's where the right fence is it's the obvious exit but then look how much distance thiago santos jogs covers forward now that he has stepped into the outer space of the octagon and bang and that is the choke point because he has cut it into this space there is a little space to get out but at that point he has already started to move forward.

He already has Marcotte on the back foot, forcing him to crash into the fence and then comes the barrage of blows. One or two things that happen when you hit someone with a body kick, they fill the air, they leave their body and start to back away or they fill the air, they leave their body and they start to panic and attack and either way it works fine For him, if they start to retreat, he will chase them, if they start the attack, he will eliminate them when they enter. I just feel like it gives the body a real benefit, especially if you can hit the arms.

If it can hurt the body, it also opens up other targets. Im important. Steve Bossa brutally wishes he would stick with ice hockey after that. He was a great fighter on the ice, but when you go up against someone who can kick you in the side of the head like that, there's no preparation for it, I mean, and again look, look at the footwork, look at the footwork. feet, I'm sorry, Steve, he was one of my. favorite ice hockey fighters also just look at the footwork that santosh uses look at how he just weaves back and forth to force his opponent to move through the step to cross into that kick so do you see it?

Yeah, I'm not even sure, Santos. He's aware of what he's doing, yeah, I think he just knows what works, I think he knows it's a really powerful weapon, it's a really powerful weapon, how do I apply those things? And I think that's where he'll start the rest of his game. Development is the parts between his attacks that will make his attacks more effective and safer for him, yes, like what we were saying at the top of the show about Anthony Smith being full of regret now that he never showed his true colors. colors. Surely Santos has to embrace that great white shark that is inside him, that unorthodox style of capoeira that does not have the orthodox movement patterns that coaches are used to preparing their fighters for, surely he must consider them as his path to victory, yes.

Absolutely, it's the unorthodox movement patterns that are going to be much more difficult for Jon Jones to exploit this new generation of guys. They should use Joe Rogan's term which is probably overused. They are all wild. I mean, there's a wildness to them. and because they're like heavyweights and because all these guys are like six-foot-five with huge arms, they have the physique to compete with Jon Jones, they have the recklessness to get around that stagnant voodoo that he uses to hold them back. down, it's just a case of which of the contenders will be able to not fall into that trap yes, it was Smith, it wasn't Smith, it could be Santos, it could be, yes, it could not be right, but it could be that's what we do.

We are here and we will find out. I love it, thanks, don't worry, brilliant stuff. Okay, well, to keep the conversation going, use the hashtag inside the octagon, the handle on UFC Europe, keep that conversation going, people, this is a very interesting fight, actually, thank you. Thank you very much for watching, see you next time.