Jon Jones Coach ‘Surprised’ By Scorecard Favoring Thiago Santos

The striking coach of Jon Jones, Brandon Gibson was taken aback when he heard the scorecard of a judge scoring his fight to Thiago Santos.

Jones defeated Santos earlier this month at UFC 239 in a career-first split decision, with one of the judges scoring it 48-47 to the Brazilian. It was all the more impressive considering Santos was heavily compromised early on in the fight, having torn every ligament in his left knee.

However, even if Santos did win the first round, Jones did enough to win the remaining rounds according to Gibson:

“I was surprised,” Gibson told MMA Fighting on Monday. “It is part of our job as coaches and trainers to be aware of how a round could have gone. We knew the first round was ultra-competitive but I thought [rounds] 2 through 5 were clearly Jon and I thought we were up.

“We weren’t asking Jon to coast or fight safe or anything like that or protect the lead. We’re always hunting. I was surprised that one judge saw it that way and I was a little surprised some media members I really respect saw it in Thiago’s favor.”

Gibson believes while “Marreta” did land some shots and made a good account of himself, they were not really impactful shots that hurt the reigning light heavyweight champion:

“I just think I have a view as good as any judge during the fight and I thought Jon’s pressure, his feints, his volume, his defense, won us that fight,” Gibson added. “Thiago missed a lot on his counters but maybe the judges thought they were landing.

“They were glancing shots, they were shots that were hitting Jon’s chest or Jon’s shoulders but Thiago came hard to fight for sure.”

Jones Better In Rematches

There have been calls for a rematch, even though it likely won’t happen until 2020 because of Santos requiring surgery.

Regardless, Gibson believes Jones would perform even better in a rematch as he did in his second fights with Daniel Cormier and Alexander Gustafsson:

“Jon’s ability to take in information is so extraordinary,” Gibson explained. “That’s what he’s proven with his rematches against [Alexander] Gustafsson and [Daniel] Cormier. Thiago is still young in this sport. Light heavyweight is a thin division at times and even though there’s a lot of up and comers, I’m sure Thiago can be right back up there in contendership soon.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw him again and I’d be really happy to see what we could put together after learning for these five rounds.”