With Daniel Cormier now the reigning heavyweight champion and Alexander Gustafsson recently losing his second attempt at UFC 232, the general belief seems to be there are no real threats to Jon Jones (24-1-1) at light heavyweight, especially given the way he outclassed Anthony Smith at UFC 235.
However, former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold (16-4) is one who could pose a threat to “Bones” according to two-weight ONE Championship champion and Hard Knocks 365 teammate Aung La N Sang.
Rockhold recently signaled his intentions of moving up to light heavyweight and earlier this year, called out a “beatable” Jones and warned him that he was coming soon.
— Jonny Meat (@JonnyBones) January 17, 2019
Jones, meanwhile, responded to the callout on Twitter with little concern, but he would be making a big mistake to underestimate Rockhold according to N Sang who was speaking to The Body Lock.
“I do think he [Rockhold] has the skillset that will be a threat for Jon Jones. He’s got a high-level grappling game and he’s got a different dimension that a lot of 205-ers don’t have.”
While Rockhold has lost two of his last three fights by knockout, he was notably looking more and more drained by the weight cut to 185 pounds.
Fighting at light heavyweight, though, will naturally bring out a much better Rockhold and N Sang believes moving up is the right decision for the 34-year-old.
“205 is a better weight class for Luke. He is so much stronger at 205. He walks around naturally at 225 so he’s a big, big guy.”
“I’m a good-sized middleweight but I’m a smaller-sized light heavyweight. Luke was cutting a little too much weight. Fight week, it was hard for him to even train. I agree with his decision to go up to 205.”
As for N Sang, he will be defending his middleweight title in a rematch against Ken Hasegawa at ONE Championship: A New Era which takes place March 31 in Tokyo, Japan.
