Former UFC light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin believes it will only take an anomaly for Jon Jones to suffer defeat inside the Octagon.
Jones defended his light heavyweight title against Thiago Santos at UFC 239 earlier this month. Although it was a split decision loss against a compromised Santos, with one judge even scoring it in favor of the Brazilian, “Bones” was still never really in trouble.
“I think he’s been fighting a lot this year,” Griffin told Helen Yee recently. “He looked like a guy who had three fights in six months, seven months. It was a decent performance. Thiago Santos is a guy who can take your belt from you with one punch. So he had to fight him in a safe manner. It wasn’t necessarily the most exciting fight but he got the job done.”
His next opponent, if it’s at light heavyweight, is likely to be Corey Anderson, who is currently on a three-fight winning streak. However, Anderson is not a name many casual fans would have heard of, nor do many believe he holds any real threat to the current champion.
Then again, the same was said for Matt Serra when he knocked out Georges St-Pierre to win the welterweight title in what is regarded as the biggest upset in UFC history. And for Griffin, it could only take the smallest of errors for Jones to finally lose.
“The last two guys that Jones faced, he obviously had respect for power in their hands,” Griffin added. “If Thiago throws a spinning heel kick, there’s your belt.
“It’s going to take an anomaly, almost like what happened with GSP. In the sport of MMA, sometimes you just get caught and sooner or later, he’ll get caught.”