Ahead of UFC 152 Fergus Ryan looks at the one of the most controversial fighters in the world, light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones and his path to greatness.
Sports fans love their champions. Especially years after as the sands of time magnify the achievements and popularity of their heroes. Some champions enjoy the popularity after retirement more than during their career as their winning habits seemed to make them unpopular.
Mohammed Ali was considered too cocky a boxer, Eddie Merkx was too ruthless a cyclist and Michael Schumacher was too arrogant a driver in their respective days but all enjoyed increased popularity after they retired.
Jon ‘Bones’ Jones has entered this area of champion turned public enemy but this has nothing to do with his ability and actions in the Octagon.
As a fighter, he is unparalleled. As a person, he seems, well… normal.
Bad Rap
Critics have questioned some of Jones recent choices. Principally, his Driving While Intoxicated charge in May this year and his decision not to fight Chael Sonnen and save UFC 151 are at the centre of his fall from grace.
Firstly, his brush with the law was totally irresponsible especially as he sees himself as a role model to young athletes. He can count himself lucky he only hit a pole but the matter is a really a personal one. The fact he had a boozy misadventure suggests he’s a normal 25 year old who gets tempted like the rest of us. It shouldn’t cloud our assessment of Jon Jones the fighter.
Secondly, his decision to not fight Chael Sonnen was probably a bad one. It was a bad one because he probably would have won, not because it led to the cancellation of an event. The cancellation was a group effort. We want our champions to step up any time anywhere and prove how great they really are.
There’s a large supporting cast who can take an assist on the cancellation of UFC 151, which Jones is being blamed for. His coach Greg Jackson was the one who ultimately advised him not to fight Sonnen. The UFC put together the card that seems to have been relying heavily on one fighter to show up and Dan Henderson knew about his injury for 3 weeks before going public or even to the UFC about it.
If we accept that he’s normal, and therefore flawed, we should then just judge him on what makes him different – his incredible ability as a fighter. Jon Jones is not just the greatest light heavyweight champion of all time. He is, quite simply, the greatest MMA fighter the sport has ever yet seen. Only time will tell if he is the GOAT, the Greatest Of All Time.
Behind the Spiders Shadow
The only reason he has not hit top of many pound for pound ranking tables is the presence of Anderson Silva. Silva was the man until Jones showed up. Looking at the total package of each, there’s not much between them. Sure, Silva’s a better striker but Jones is the better wrestler and wrestling dictates where the fight happens. The real difference in assessing of both fighters is their body of work.
It feels like Silva has been around forever. He debuted in 1997 and has amassed a 31-4 record. The last time he lost was a disqualification in 2006, which he avenged at UFC 134 in beating Yushin Okami.
Silva has the greatest record in championship fights in the UFC going 11-0, which are only part of his 15 fight win streak since joining the company.
Prior to this Silva had drifted from promotion to promotion without really establishing himself. Sure he’d won belts in Cage Rage and Shooto but he hardly fought the highest calibre middleweights in doing so.
Only success so far
In contrast to Silva, Jon Jones has been a sensation since he first taped up his hands to fight. Jones was signed by the UFC in July, 2008 after compiling a 6-0 record in four months. His first UFC fight at UFC 87 was taken on two weeks notice and two years later, after going 5-1 in the UFC, Jones landed a title contender eliminator fight against Ryan Bader at UFC 126. His one loss was a disqualification for using illegal elbows against Matt Hamill.
After blowing Bader aside, he was then fast tracked to a title shot after an injury forced Rashad Evans out of his championship fight with Shogun Rua at UFC 128.
After one of the most one sided and devastating beatings in a title fight, Jon Jones was crowned the new UFC light-heavyweight champion three years into his MMA career, at the tender age of 24, the youngest champion in the promotion’s history. He has defended his belt against 3 former champions in style. Rampage and Evans took him 4 and 5 rounds respectively to beat but those fights were never close.
Machida is the only fighter so far to take the fight to Jones and probably won the first round before succumbing to a guillotine in the 2nd.
A bigger future
Jones has stated he will transition to heavyweight by the time he’s 27. He may have to do it sooner with the lack of quality opposition at 205lbs on the horizon. For all intents and purposes, he has cleaned out the light heavyweight division. Dan Henderson, who has plied most of his trade at middleweight, is the next real challenger. Jones will face Vitor Belfort this weekend at UFC 152. Like Henderson, Belfort has a puncher’s chance but is giving up many inches in reach and many years in age (10 on both measures).
Jones has quoted Marianne Williams saying “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” When you watch Jon Jones fight you see a man who realises he can truly be powerful beyond measure. Wherever a fight takes place Jones gets the better of his opponents. He out-strikes the strikers, out wrestlers the wrestlers, he out-thinks every fighter during every second of the fight.
When we spoke to Jones before his fight with Rampage Jackson he told us he was not surprised by his meteoric rise. “You could call my rise quick but to me it wasn’t an overnight success. I’ve tried to train for every conceivable circumstance…And so when you’ve put the time I have into achieving your goals the success doesn’t seem to have come that quick.”
With talent and time on his side Jon Jones can create his legacy now by continuing to be the greatest fighter the sport has yet seen. The path of a champion is never a straight road to the top. How he deals with the obstacles will have more to do with what people think of him today than how he’ll be remembered in the future.
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