True, Jon Jones retained his title with a split decision win over Thiago Santos in the main event of last night’s (Sat., July 6, 2019) UFC 239 (highlights here) from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. However, you may be surprised to see Jones carried out by his cornermen following the five-round war.
The fight was a brutal, surprising one due to a couple of aspects. First off, Santos appeared to seriously hurt his knee early on in the fight. The injury caused the joint to buckle on several occasions. He fought valiantly and even threw the leg several times. But by the end of the fight, his movement was severely compromised. It’s fair to wonder how much better he could have done had he not injured the limb.
As for Jones, it’s a wonder why he didn’t use his wrestling and grappling skillsets to ground and control the obviously hurt Santos.
He was instead peppered by Santos’ continuous inside leg kicks with his damaged leg. That led to a huge welt on the left inner thigh for the MMA great. The wound swelled to gargantuan proportions in the fifth round. Jones emerged victorious by a thin margin on the official scorecards as was mentioned, yet you might think he took the worst of it.
How so? Well, Jones was carried out of the Octagon by his team after the narrow win. Santos was somehow able to make his own way out of the Octagon despite having a potentially torn ACL in his left leg.
Watch the scene via Twitter right here:
