Former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker ruled out Khabib Nurmagomedov as the GOAT. He believed that former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones is more fitting for the title.
The UFC has been established in 1993 and has had a lot of spectacular athletes over time. Since then, fans have been debating on who is the greatest of all time to ever compete in mixed martial arts. People often name either Khabib Nurmagomedov, Jon Jones, Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva, Demetrious Johnson, and Fedor Emelianenko.
From that list, Khabib was the latest to be regarded as the GOAT and was talked about more in the recent times as he just retired in 2020. However, this debate was brought up again when Jon Jones made headlines announcing his return after a 3-year lay off.
Robert Whittaker spoke up about his view on Khabib and Jones. The 32-year-old New Zealander regarded Jones as the greatest of all time, reflecting on his long reign and dominance against his opponents.
“Jon Jones is the best of all time – of all time, pound-for-pound greatest of all time.”
“What he did to his opponents, and to the division, and as a champion, nobody has come close to that level of supremacy and domination. He is a freak of nature.”- Whittaker said during his appearance on FOX.
Whittaker also underlined Jones’ statistics, saying that the 35-year-old is a skilled grappler and striker. He also possessed good cardio, power, strength, and especially ideal build for a mixed martial artist.
Jon Jones started to compete at a young age and has been beating everyone in the UFC light heavyweight division since 2008. He is technically undefeated with his only loss being a disqualification. However, Jones tested positive for PEDs two times, making it hard to regard him as the greatest.
Meanwhile, Khabib Nurmagomedov is undefeated with a total of 29 professional outings and always dominated his opponents. He competed 13 times in the UFC. and only defended his lightweight title 3 times before retiring. His other huge drawback is that he competed against low-level athletes for much of his career.