Jon Jones’ Coach Explains Gameplan To Beat “Dangerous” Thiago Santos

Jon Jones’ coach, Mike Winkeljohn, understands what is in front of his fighter in his next title defense, and is making sure to come up with a great gameplan.

Jones makes his next title defense as UFC light heavyweight champion against Thiago Santos in the main event of UFC 239 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada this weekend.

While doing a recent interview, Winkeljohn made it known that they understand the danger of fighting someone like Santos, which is why they have a great gameplan in place:

“Yeah, he has that knockout power. He is very explosive and is very good what he does,” Winkeljohn said to BJPENN.com. “He is dangerous and can attack you first. But, we have to worry about the counter. That is the most dangerous thing about Thiago.”

With such a dangerous striker in Santos, Winkeljohn knows that the right call would be to get Santos down on his back and let Jones rain down strikes. However, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t some danger with this tactic:

“Once Jon takes people down he lands the elbows and it is a bloody mess. So, the easiest path to victory is to take him down,” he explained. “But, with that being said, we don’t want to shoot and he lands a hard shot that hurts Jon. There are so many things that can happen.”

Santos will be fighting for UFC gold for the first time but this isn’t his first main event slot. Thus, going five-rounds won’t be the problem, but rather the level of competition that Jones brings to this fight. 

Santos has looked great since moving from middleweight to light heavyweight as he is 3-0 with three TKO/KO wins in the weight class. If he is able to pick up the win over Jones it would certainly shock the world. 

What are your thoughts on this exact strategy made up from Jon Jones’ coach?