He landed enough damage to convince 1 of the judges he won. And he would have landed even less damage if Jones put him on his back and rained elbows and fists down on him like he's more than capable of. I mean, this is a guy that took down DC. I'm sure he could take down a hobbled Santos.
Yeah, Jones is tough to hit, but Santos's most likely path to victory was a KO. The more you stand with him, the more time you're giving him to land that shot.
That OSP fight is kind of why I think it is a motivation thing. He looked 'bad' in that fight (still won every round) and then came back and KO'ed DC and smashed Gus (2 of the best LHW in the era) in back-to-back fights. The Gus fight was only a year ago, so it's still in there. I think he just needs a challenge or for someone to piss him off. I think Reyes is pissing him off, so I think we're going to see that killer again. I think we'd see it if he went to HW or against Stylebender, too.
I guess we weren't watching the same fight. Poirier came out strong and hurt him in the first and at the end of a second. Had a great moment in the 4th when he sliced up Max's forehead with a knee. Dustin's had big moments in that fight. Volume and pressure though was on Max's side as always. He's been more consistent in that fight and had Dustin hurt in the 3rd when he caught him against the cage and unloaded a barrage of punches. Dustin himself admitted after the fight that he was hurt at that moment but bit down on his mouthpiece and decided to swing until Max would knock him out unconscious (that obviously didn't happen). That was a great fight with a momentum going back and forth. Max also outstruck Dustin in most of the rounds. I wasn't sure Dustin won that fight 100% before judges scorecards were read. Poirier had to dig deep to win it.
