UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones didn’t feel unbeatable according to Anthony Smith.
Daniel Cormier recently stated that he felt it would be a heavyweight who would be able to defeat Jones by turning his lights off.
Cormier added that he didn’t see anyone capable of beating Jones over 25 minutes.
“Obviously, you guys know my feelings towards him [Jones] but he’s good, man,” Cormier said. “I think it’s going to take a heavyweight. It will be one of those big, big guys that shuts the lights out. I just don’t know if those guys can beat Jones over 25 minutes.”
Smith — who suffered a unanimous decision defeat to Jones in their light heavyweight title fight last year — agrees and disagrees with Cormier.
While “Lionheart” believes a heavyweight would have better chances, he doesn’t agree with Cormier implying that Jones is unbeatable by stating that nobody can beat him over the course of a fight.
That’s because despite his own loss to Jones, Smith still felt like the champion could be beaten.
“I think a heavyweight would have a much easier time,” Smith told SiriusXM Fight Nation. “I like Daniel, I’ve worked with Daniel — I disagree with Daniel. I hear him talk about Jon Jones like that all the time. I don’t see that. I didn’t feel like that when I was in there with Jon Jones. Obviously I had my own issues and I think later on, I’ll write a book and tell the entire story about that, but I don’t feel like that. I didn’t feel like I was in there with a dude who was unbeatable.
“And when I hear DC talk sometimes, I get the feeling as if he’s talking about someone who’s unbeatable. Especially a man who was winning the second fight and just got clipped and put down. I think all judges had DC up, he was winning every minute of every round up till the point that he got kicked. I always feel really uncomfortable when I hear DC talk like that. One, because I don’t see that when I’ve seen him fight [Jones] the second time. And I didn’t feel like that when I was in there with Jon Jones.”
Jones has the natural advantage over all his opponents, at least at light heavyweight, with his height, length and reach.
But potentially moving up to heavyweight somewhat negates those advantages and also exposes him to the real power punchers in the promotion such as Francis Ngannou and Stipe Miocic.
And Smith believes it’s certainly possible for a heavyweight to defeat “Bones” even if they aren’t better than him throughout a fight.
“Would some more size absolutely help? For sure,” Smith added. “If I was bigger, a couple inches taller and had a few more inches of reach on me, absolutely it’s easier to do.
“Also, if you’re a heavyweight and you’re a big power striker, maybe you can get away with putting Jon Jones out without having to be better than him for an entire fight. That’s how I look at it.”
