Jon Jones is one of the biggest UFC superstars. Youngest champion in the promotions history never actually lost his title – he was stripped over and over again over shenanigans. But with the introduction of Khabib Nurmagomedov into the UFC Hall of Fame it became pertinent again to talk about how Jones compares what he’s achieved to what Nurmagomedov’s acheieved.
Khabib retired as an undefeated champion that never lost the belt. The UFC Hall of Famer had 29 professional bout and won all of them. Now while that’s spotless in theory – many point out that Khabib was taking on lower level opposition for close to half of his career. Out of 29 career victories only 13 were from the UFC. On top of that, many believe that Nurmagomedov should’ve lost the bout against Gleison Tibau.
During the later stage of his UFC run he faced some of the best in the Lightweight division including Conor McGregor, Dustin Poirier, Rafael Dos Anjos, and Justin Gaethje.
Khabib defended his belt 4 times before retiring in 2020. During the retirement announcement following Gathje bout, Khabib expressed a desire to see himself atop UFC’s P2P rankings – a desire that was promptly fulfilled the following Monday when UFC released rankings for that week.
With such an illustrious career, many fans argued that Khabib might be the best to ever compete in MMA.
However, former UFC Lightheavyweight champion Jon Jones does not agree.
Jones won the belt in 2011 when he TKO’d Maurício Shogun Rua. Since then, Jon has been in fifteen UFC title bouts and emerged victorious in every single one of them.
“I’m talking to all you Khabib fans out there 15 world titles to your guy’s four. And you guys are really talking about who’s the best fighter ever? You guys are joking, right? 15 to 4? Are you guys kidding me?”
“The only person that could possibly come back and challenge my record and what I’ve done in the UFC is possibly Georges St-Pierre.”
“He would have to come back and win two championship fights to tie me. And I’m not even retired yet. I’m 33 years old. I’ve got a whole other chapter to go through.”
“And all you guys that are going with this ‘he’s more dominant’ argument, the guy just recently started fighting elite-level competition. Can you imagine me against the 10th-ranked guy?”
A counter-argument to Jones’s “GOAT” claim is that he was repeatedly caught abusing PEDs throughout his career.
Up next, Jones has the potential to further cement himself in the “GOAT” conversation. The light heavyweight legend is scheduled to go up in weight for the first time in his career. Jones is rumored to be in negotiations to face Stipe Miocic for the interim Heavyweight title this summer. Winning the Heavyweight title would certainly help Jones be a shoe in for the greatest of all time.