Johnny Walker believes he could ‘punish’ Jon Jones on the ground

Esther Lin, MMA Fighting

Johnny Walker has made a name for himself as one of the breakout stars of the of 2019 due to his astronomical knockout power, but the Brazilian believes he has a skillset that would allow him to “punish” Jon Jones on the ground if they were to meet.

Walker was on site to watch Jones’ competitive title defense against countryman Thiago Santos and his big takeaway was the champion being unable to stop “Maretta” despite him suffering injuries to both knees during the contest.

“I was there to watch that fight, it was a good fight,” Walker told MMA Fighting’s Eurobash podcast.

“I think Jon Jones respects Thiago and Thiago respect Jon Jones. Jon Jones has a very good control game and he doesn’t want to risk himself because he knows Thiago has good hands and he had power to knock him out. But Thiago injured both knees, a bad injury, he needs a lot of surgery. Jon Jones need a lot of time to beat a guy with a lot of injuries.”

The Brazilian light heavyweight underlined his belief that he could force the best out of “Bones”:

“I know Jon Jones can do better than that, and that’s why I want to fight him — I know I can give him the proper fight. I can push him to fight better and then everyone will see who Jon Jones is, then everyone can see who is the real champion.”

Despite his three first-round knockouts to date in the Octagon, Walker is confident that he would be able to overwhelm Jones on the ground, as well as standing.

“I could use his style as well. He can take me down, but I can take him down as well. I could give him a proper ground fight, nobody has been able to give him any punishment on the ground, I think I can punish him on the ground.”

Check out the latest episode of Eurobash. The Johnny Walker interview begins at 43:00.