Editor’s Note: Welcome to Covington’s Corner. Sean Covington pulls no punches and will bring his unique, steaming hot takes to his own personal corner of MMATorch.com.
G.O.A.T: Guilty, Overhyped, Appalling Titlist
Greatest Of All Time; that’s how Jon Jones is seen to many.
We all understand how much trouble Jones has been in outside of the Octagon and that he has had some serious issues with drug testing. However, that is not my focus here (I’ll address that in another article). Let’s look at some the opponents of Jon Jones and see how they’ve held up over time.
Stephan Bonnar – overrated, couldn’t beat anyone when it really mattered.
Vitor Belfort – when he isn’t on TRT he really is disappointing.
Ryan Bader – Bader went to Bellator because he was going to become a gatekeeper in the UFC. Understandable to a degree but he will always be seen as (by me) another guy that just jumped ship because he couldn’t handle the competition.
Lyoto Machida – Machida is past his prime and wasn’t the same after losing to Shogun. Machida’s style was figured out by the top guys in the division.
Rampage Jackson – Rampage was well past his prime when he fought Jones. Not even a shadow of his former self.
Rashad Evans – Past his prime.
Shogun– Past his prime.
Alexander Gustafsson – Jones won a very close decision; arguably a loss.
Ovince St. Preux – OSP is overrated and was definitely not in the best shape for that fight.
Daniel Cormier – Unfortunately not all of Jones’ shenanigans outside of the cage can be excluded because he has two failed drug test that resulted in him losing championships.
There have been too many title defenses against washed up fighters and ho-hum decisions for Jones to claim the mantle of the G.O.A.T.
Now if you take Jones’ wins and compare them to let’s say, an Anderson Silva, then it’s clear Silva was much better. Silva finished Rich Franklin twice, Franklin whom had been firmly at the top of the mountain. Anderson Silva submitted Hendo, TKO’d Forrest Griffin in humiliating fashion, had a late comeback submission of Chael Sonnen in his prime; there is a hell of a case for Anderson Silva being the G.O.A.T. Silva destroyed top opponents while Jones arguably lost to Gustafsson.
Jones has had some very timely eye pokes as well, in fact, he is a serial eye poker. Gustafsson and Cormier were both poked in the eye when Jones started to feel things slipping away in their fights.
The arguments I’ve made can be made for other top fighters considered to be great as well; that’s fine. The point of this is to get people talking and being more honest about who fought who and was it what people say. Or, are people slapping a fresh coat of paint over the past every time a fighter they like is discussed.
No doubt Jon Jones has had more than his fair share of success. If Jones weren’t such a clown outside of the octagon he might even be liked more but the fact of the matter is, he isn’t nearly as dominant as he is said to be. Revisionist history says otherwise, revisionists would have you believe that Jones knocked every single person out and never went five rounds.
NEXT: UFC 230 EMBEDDED EPISODE 5
We know what the truth is, Jon Jones has his place in the annals of MMA history at the top but it is NOT as the greatest of all time.
Highly disagree with all your points here. He fought everyone inside the top 5 outside of OSP since becoming the champ. He has had his outside the octagon stuff but to say hes overrated is ridiculous. Please tell me that yes Anderson Silva beat Franklin but who had Franklin been fighting? Outside of DC beating Stipe who has DC beat that’s a legit guy? Your basing this off a dislike for Jon Jones and it is clear in your article.
Who’s dumbass wrote this article. I guess nobody even matters according to you then. Khabib fought alot of nobodies before the ufc, guess it doesnt count. Tony ferguson lost to michael johnson a long time ago, guess Tony ferguson is shit. Daniel cormier fought anderson silva past his prime, guess it doesnt count. This article is quite possibly the dumbest article I have ever laid eyes on and I’m not even a huge Jon Jones fan.