MMA: Johnson says Aung La N Sang coud give Jon Jones ‘a run for his money’
By Kevin Sox
Fresh off his successful debut for ONE Championship earlier this month in the ONE: A New Era event in Tokyo, Japan, Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson has nothing but high respect for the fighters representing the organization.
In an interview with famous sports blog MMA Fighting, Johnson even said current two-division ONE champion Aung La N Sang could give UFC light heavyweight legend Jon Jones.
“It doesn’t matter what organization you fight for. The light heavyweight champion, Jon Jones, could come over here and fight Aung La Nsang, and Aung La Nsang would probably give him a run for his money. Or potentially beat him,” said Johnson to MMA Fighting.
The quote was in response to a question about Eddie Alvarez’s loss in his own ONE debut to Timofey Nastyukhin.
“I think that fight between Timofey Nastyukhin and Eddie Alvarez was a great fight. Timofey is very good. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen him fight. Then I saw some of his highlights, and I was like, ‘Oh man! This is gonna be a good fight.’,” said Johnson.
Alvarez was knocked out for the first time in 37 fights by the Russian Nastyukhin, a surprise for many although Johnson thinks otherwise.
“This is the biggest thing that… it irritates me, a little bit,” said Johnson about Alvarez’s result being called surprising.
Johnson continued that even UFC’s 155-pound king Khabib Nurmagomedov may see challenges should he go up against opposition from the ONE stable.
“Who else? What’s another champion? Khabib Nurmagomedov, he might be able to come over here, and he might blow through everybody. But, he might have some tough matches. And the list just goes on and on and on,” said Johnson.
“It doesn’t matter if you fight for ONE, UFC, Bellator, DEEP, RIZIN, whatever. Every athlete can lose on any given day. And that’s a problem with the causal fans – or even the hardcore fans – they think that just because you fight for the biggest organization in the world means that you’re absolutely the best fighter in the world.”
