Eryk Anders, who has faced Santos in the past, is warning Jones that Santos is going to be a “wild card” in their fight.
“He’s [Santos] a wild card, man,” Anders said on The Body Lock (via Lewis Mckeever of Bloody Elbow). “He throws a lot of crazy stuff, he does the capoeira stuff. But I think that Jon Jones, he doesn’t let anyone get started. As soon as they start to find a rhythm and a groove, he throws like a teep kick or one of those oblique kicks and he totally disrupts your timing. He’s super long and athletic, he can wrestle which I think is Thiago’s weak spot, he gets taken down pretty easy. Jon Jones got submissions, he can wrestle, he can strike, he figures people out pretty quickly.”
Anders and Santos met back at UFC Fight Night Sao Paulo, with Santos scoring a third round TKO win on that night.
While Anders has issued the warning to Jones, one thing he believes is that Jones will one day retire as the greatest fighter of all time.
“[But] once again, four-ounce gloves, a knockout is always looming. But we haven’t seen anybody get close to hitting Jon Jones except for Gustafsson in his first fight. And Jon Jones was out partying and having a good time before the fight. I think now he’s a little more focused and honing in on his craft. He’s probably going to retire as the greatest of all time,” says Anders.
UFC 239 takes place on Saturday, July 6 from the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia with Jon Jones and Thiago Santos headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
