Jon Jones is considered one of, if not the greatest fighter of all-time. He is 24-1 with one no contest and his only loss came by disqualification.

Time and time again “Bones” has broken down his opponents by using his length and reach, accompanied by his strong striking and wrestling skills.

Anthony Smith, who most recently fought the light heavyweight champion at UFC 235, believes any fighter will have a hard time with Jon Jones their first go around.

“I said the same sh*t going into it. It is not that simple. Now that I have 25 minutes of data on Jon Jones it totally looks different the second time around. But, you are right it is different, he is very different. There is no way of knowing that or training for that until you are in there with him. That’s the thing,” Smith said to The Mac Life. “I don’t want to just outright say it, but it is going to be hard to beat Jon Jones the first time for anybody, it really is. Unless you catch him, he’s going to be hard to beat on the first time. Thiago could catch anybody though, that dude is dangerous, he’s explosive, he could hurt anybody. I just don’t see him getting close enough to Jon to do it.”

Whether or not that is true is to be seen. But, Smith, like many others believes Thiago Santos’ path to victory is to catch the champ early on. However, Smith knows first hand that Jones style can freeze up his opponents and believes that it could very well happen again at UFC 239.

Do you think anybody will ever beat Jon Jones? Sound off in the comment section, PENN Nation!

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 7/4/2019