Is Jon Jones the GOAT Already?

[Turd Ferguson]

Jon Jones is 24 years old. He has at least ten years left. And now that he thoroughly handled Rashad Evans last night, forget calling him the best Light Heavyweight in the history of MMA (which I think you already need to consider him as being), I think it's time to give him consideration as being the greatest of all time.

None of this talk is premature. I think it's the absolute truth.

At the end of 2010, the top four in the Light Heavyweight division was Shogun at the top, and the other three were basically interchangeable between Rampage, Rashad, and Machida. It is now April 2012, and Jon Jones has run through all of them. These four men have all held the belt, and Jones ran through them in dominating fashion.

He has now defended the Light Heavyweight title three times, but against without a doubt, extremely tough competition.

The remaining two questions we had about Jones was his takedown defense and his ability to take a punch. Rashad was unable to get Jones to the ground last night, and Rashad threw some bombs at him that he was able to shake off. Jones has no holes in his game at all. He's still improving with every fight, and he's only 24 years old. He's getting into "Tyson in his prime" territory, where it doesn't matter who he faces, he's going to win and win dominantly.

For crying out loud, in his only career loss, he nearly killed Matt Hamill.

Every fighter who gets mentioned as being the greatest of all time has a glaring weakness, or has faced competition that isn't the very best. Anderson Silva's glaring weakness? His takedown defense. And yes, while he is on a dominant run in the Middleweight division, he's also had some blah opponents that had no business being in there with him. Fedor padded his record while in PRIDE, and he was never really that good in the first place. Both of those guys never faced the level of competition that Jon Jones has faced so far in his title run. GSP is the king at Welterweight, but he's turned in some blah performances where he fights to not lose and gets out kickboxed against the likes of Jake Shields. There are still questions about his chin that Condit is going to make him answer.

After last night's performance, I don't see anyone who can beat Jon Jones. As much as I love Dan Henderson, I don't see him doing it. He's not going to get Jones to the ground, and he basically has the same shot Rashad had, which is one hell of a puncher's chance. It sure as hell isn't going to be Alexander Gustafsson or Phil Davis. He's already taken out Ryan Bader. The likes of Lil Nog and Forrest Griffin wouldn't stand a chance. Jones has effectively already cleaned out the Light Heavyweight Division, the most talent rich division in the UFC.

Sure, it might be premature to call Jones the Greatest of All Time. Give it a couple months after Sonnen beats Silva in the rematch and there goes your last argument against why Jones isn't the GOAT.

 

[INDYjon22]

I don't know if I would call him the GOAT all time quiet yet. He is certainly the best Light Heavyweight currently and in my opinion of all time. As much as I love Tito, Randy and Chuck, none of them fought the level of competition Jones has, and been as successful. As for GOAT, I am still going to hold out deciding that until I see how he does against Hendo, Alexander the Great, and eventually the Heavyweight division. I think most of us see at as inevitable that Jones will be Heavyweight and lets see how he does against those big boys before declaring him the GOAT. I would also like to hold out on labeling him the GOAT if he does at some point fight Anderson, though that fight would effectively work as a fight to deem the GOAT anyways.

 

[jmt225]

He's definitely the greatest Light Heavyweight of all time at this point. Tito reigned supreme of the division when there was literally no competition, while Chuck Liddell defended his title against the likes of glassjaw Babalu, Jeremy Horn, mid-forties glassjaw Randy Couture, and Tito. Neither guy had legit competition. The best Light Heavyweights were all in Pride. And Pride was ruled by Wandy, who I love but let's be honest here... he was a one dimensional juiced pig. Shogun is the only person that could come close to Jones, but injuries have set him back big time, unfortunately.

As far as being the GOAT all together... not sure I'm ready to go there yet. I still put Anderson, Fedor, and GSP over Jones for now. If he beats Hendo and then Gustaffson (assuming he reaches a title shot), and then goes on to win the Heavyweight title, then yeah... I won't be able to debate it. For now though you can probably say Jones is the most physically gifted MMArtist of all time, but his record needs more big names before you can start calling him the GOAT.

 

[Fizzy]

Jon Jones is the greatest Light Heavyweight of all time which is an amazing feat when looking at the legends that have fought in this weight class. No fighter has ever fought a higher level of competition and dismissed these challenges so easily. It's mind boggling how easily Jones beats his opponents at such a young age and he's only getting better. He's learning how to sit on punches and gain extra power which is scary for his opponents. It seems every time I watch him fight, he is a completely different fighter than he was just months prior.

Is he the greatest fighter of all time? Not yet, at least in my eyes. That's not to say he will never be the best, I actually expect him to be unanimously called the greatest fighter of all time in a few years. The reason I don't rank him higher than Anderson, Fedor, and GSP is simply that he hasn't shown the longevity these fighters have. That's not Jones's fault, he's only 24 and has only been fighting for four years, it's just that these guys have dominated for years and years and while Jones has fought a higher level of competition than each of these guys, I want him to dominate for a few more years before I declare him the greatest ever. Is he the greatest fighter in the world right now? It's hard to argue with that, but I want to see him dominate for years like these guys before I consider him the best ever.

 

[JWGunslinger]

I dont doubt that he will be, but not yet. He's definitely one of the best and 2011 will probably go down as the best year for a fighter in history but he needs more fights with more big names, simple as that. He's done a tremendous job against some of the best guys in the sport but I want to see him fight Henderson and maybe a few more big names, maybe a fight at heavyweight before calling him the GOAT. Right now in my books that title belongs to Hendo because he's been beating top guys for years and has a hell of a resume, Jon keeps up what hes doing and beats the current GOAT then without a doubt I'll call him the king.