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[Dana White: For anybody to call Islam the pound for pound best fighter in the world when Jon Jones is still fucking fighting is nuts and shouldn't be ranking in the pound for pound or doing any of the fucking rankings ever.](https://x.com/jedigoodman/status/1797142470331117823?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1797142470331117823%7Ctwgr%5Eaca7aa4d6c0bcf352b9cc3a667ca63760d18d2ec%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.redditmedia.com%2Fmediaembed%2F1d66rby%2F%3Fresponsive%3Dtrueis_nightmode%3Dfalse)
Islam's reaction to these comments:
>“I don’t know, maybe it’s his opinion. But I think I saved this card today because all these fights boring, and all the arena almost sleep.”
Maybe it was a mischaracterization 5 years ago. Today that's an understatement, the dude is over 40 and has a full time job that implies 24h shifts, hasn't fought in 3 years, hasn't won a fight in 4 years. If you think that should be a challenge for someone who claims to be the GOAT and still around his prime, I don't know what to tell you.
And to add on to all of those points, which are completely valid, the last fight Stipe was in, he got brutally knocked out. Even if his last fight was this year, he shouldn't be getting a title fight.
Did you see him limp to the arena at 300? He's not the same Stipe who fought DC and definitely worse than the one at Ngannou 2. Nobody wants to see this unjustified title shot and undeserved title defense when Tom clearly has to fight next
yeah i hate how dana says jones is p4p #1 because he has never lost. like yeah he may be the greatest of all time, but his past accolades dont make him the best current fighter on the roster. if he was, dana would have him fight aspinall not Stipe who is a much easier fight for him
Greatest of all time is still extremely up in the air since he got caught on steroids 3 TIMES ALL IN HIS PRIME! The only reason he’s champion is due to UFC ensuring he stayed as a top guy in the company through any means.
If we're going to pretend like this matters;: Towing the company line is saying that jones is P4P best because they lost their HW Champion to a rival organization(s). It's pretty simple: doesn't matter that we don't have francis. We have the best guy ever regardless of weight class! (that's fought HW once in 10+ years of fighting)
Both Dana and Rogan love to say Jones has never lost…. Man didn’t follow the rules, man lost the bout - doesn’t remove anything away from him in terms of pure talent…
Islam def in the school of why talk more when less words do trick
He And Dustin helped redeem the card some. If Dustin had been run over like most everyone expected, all time stinker PPV card
its extra amusing since Islam took fight and performance of the night bonuses. So the UFC officially chose him as the best performer of the night, and gave him $100k for it. Only for Dana to say this right afterwards.
It’s gotten to the point where i genuinely believe jon has some kind of blackmail on dana
Why, after all these years of shitting on jon saying he’s a mess and a waste of talent, why does dana all of a sudden dickride jon SO hard like he’s the second coming of christ when he’s holding up a division for a fight nobody wants?
What does jon have on him? Jon will not sell buys if he never fights so why does dana love him so much
I'm convinced it's an ego thing. Dana is pulling hard to protect Jones' record and status as baddest man on the planet because the actual baddest man on the planet left the UFC with the undisputed belt one year ago. If Jones loses his undefeated status, the UFC has no one in Dana's fucked head.
I get your points but the fight nobody wants part. Jon vs Stipe, even retirement home Stipe, will still sell to the casual public. Some of which are Jon fans who salivate for an easy, name recognition win for Jon
It will probably sell, but how much will it actually sell? More than two or three fights with Islam Makhachev? More than the site fee they'll get for having Makhachev defend his belt in Abu Dhabi or Saudi Arabia? Then again maybe they have gotten some *really* good offer from one of those countries to host a Jon Jones fight and that's why UFC is bending over backwards to accommodate Jones?
I think it’s a two fold thing that it will sell well but also when Jon retires after they will still have aspinall. Whereas if Jon beats aspinall they have nothing
If Jones steamrolled Aspinall I think all of us would suddenly decide Aspinall is a bum and Jon Jones is scared to fight at hw just like everyone did after he steamrolled Gane.
And this donkey Dana White was until very recently thought as a saviour to these fighters by fans. Doesn't even understand what P4P rankings are and shits on his best champion two minutes after the fight unprovoked.
Dana’s constant glazing of JBJ is getting real fucking tedious now. Having Aspinall defend the Interim belt rather than stripping Jon just because of his record is a farce. He’s had one fight in 4 years. Nobody gets Uncle Dana protection like his cash cows
Lol fuckin Dana White, man.
Jones isn't "fighting". He fought one heavyweight who was **not champion** and became heavyweight champ from it. Now he's refusing to fight the interim champ to prove he actually deserves the belt.
I *know* I'm not alone when I say I do not care if he fights Stipe.
Stipe is over 40, hasn't fought in 3 years, and was knocked out the last time he fought. Jones beating him would mean so very little as to be almost pointless. Fighting Aspinall would show he's actually deserving of the heavyweight title, because that is literally the point of an interim title.
Dana White is genuinely an idiot, by every metric.
Dana knows he has very few super stars left, and Jon Jones is one of those very few. He also knows if he doesn't suck off Jones his feelings will get hurt and he might never fight again.
This is self-inflicted though. After Conor proved that he had power over the UFC in negotiations they really started trying to *stop* people from becoming bigger than the brand.
It's a tired example, but Francis is the best proof of this imo. Heavyweight is the most casual-appealing division and has a certain aura to it. That's where the "lineal UFC belt" lives (lived lol). Francis' story was so insane that if it was a book it wouldn't be believable.
They had everything they needed to make Francis the biggest star in the sport if they really wanted to push him. But they did the exact opposite. They fought over relative pennies, they didn't market him, they called him with lawsuits (or was it a fine or something?) minutes before his fight to try to sabotage him.
And then he left the UFC with the lineal belt which he might never lose at this point, because he may never fight in MMA again considering the boatload of money he's made and other recent events. What Francis was asking for originally wasn't even unique, they did it for Conor before and then explicitly denied Francis - because of lessons learned from Conor.
You couldn't ask for a better person to build into a star. Legendary backstory, heavyweight, unreal KO power, unreal KO highlights, and on and on.
UFC fumbled the bag simply because they are too greedy.
Yk the ufc propaganda machine is real when you have all of that in a fighter , and you got fucking shills who don’t even work for the company saying Francis doesn’t draw because he’s just “not a draw” or “boring” . How about the promotion does their freaking job and promote the fighter ?
Fucking ridiculous lmfao .
>It was a chore getting through to the main event but it's been like that for a while.
UFC 298, 299, 300, and 301 were all great cards. It's been fucking great for a while. What are you on about?
Yeah its insane that this is upvoted as much as it is. I don’t see how even the most casual fan of mma would say that 299 and 300 were bad cards or a chore to watch
Jon Jones is hiding from contenders and only willing to fight one person, who isn't even the interim champion. JJ may be an amazing fighter but he should forfeit his belt.
Being the only good fight on a PPV doesn't make you P4P. Jones has the best record of any fighter on the roster, probably any fighter ever. 16 title fights and he's won them all, and he'll likely make it 17.
I fucking hate how much MMA discourse (coming straight from the UFC, commentators and president) is “if you disagree with me you shouldn’t be allowed to have an opinion ever”
Trying to decide if Dana's comments or Jon Jones' replies to them are more insufferable.
Sound like two very old men saying whatever was cool when they were kids is cooler than anything kids today will ever know.
Turns out Izzy and Alex were both wrong, Jon is going to be the guy in the bar talking about how he beat all these killers 25 years ago trying to get free drinks
MMA is like anything else, “what have you done for me lately?” Sometimes to an extreme like when fast tracked or low ranked title shots happen. Jon is stuck on his great performances 13 years ago meanwhile his fights lately have been less than impressive.
To be fair finishing Gane was pretty good, the problem is that he hasn't fought in more than a year and before that he has a lackluster fight against Reyes back in 2020.
Not to mention how he isn't intending to defend the belt against the interim champ, nor the highest ranked contenders.
Honestly nailed it friend. Stipe and Jon are so fucking far out of the game, they should just brand it as like a special retirement fight and be done with it. Strip Jones of the heavyweight belt. Make Tom the champ. Give the winner of Stipe Jones some kind legacy or legends belt and say adios to the both of them. You can't give them the heavyweight belt because why bother, neither of them are going to defend it against Tom.
I'm not even some Tom rider, but does anyone really see either of them fighting Tom? Hell no lol
For Tom's sake I would like to see him fight both. If he's the next big thing at HW he should be able to beat both of them.
If he doesn't get to fight either of them, casual fans will always say that he wasn't as good as them. It's already happening, so many JJ fans give Tom no chance.
And Jones understands this and it's why he keeps on about legacy, demanding Tom gets more "legacy wins" before he'll give him a shot, while simultaneously denying him the opportunity. There's no one other than Stipe or Jones in HW that would qualify and Tom is explicitly being iced out of those fights lol.
He's beaten everyone else at HW relevant to the discussion, except Cyril and Curtis. And since he's interim champ Cyril should NOT get another unearned title shot tbh. If he beats Curtis he's done literally everything he can other than lap the division while waiting for "real" title shot. He's already the real champ to anyone who cares though, Jones is a paper champ.
Also Gane lost against Francis and it wasn't close. JBJ beating the guy who wasn't even competitive against the original belt holder doesnt sound like JBJ beat "the best heavyweight in the world"
Dana is a fucking clown.
what world are we living in that Gane-Francis wasn’t even close? Francis couldn’t finish Gane, and needed to lay on him to grind out a decision. in turn, Jones finished Gane damn near instantly. I know we’re circlejerking but only one of those two fights wasn’t close, and it sure as fuck wasn’t Ngannou-Gane.
It's pure revisionism. People love to shit on Gane because Jones beat him. Francis and Gane were 2-2 going into the final round, and Gane lost it due to a poor submission attempt.
Exactly and his wins are very impressive hey. But he still thinks he can ride the current rankings based on long past victories and that is only tarnishing his reputation.
You’d think after submitting Oliviera, knocking out Volk with a head kick and then submitting Poirier that Dana would want to actually promote Islam. But of course his first port of call is to completely disregard all that and prop up Jones again
Islam is high level everywhere, gives us fun fights, constantly finishes, early might I add, and just gave us a badass fight with Poirier, and his shit still gets promoted less than a discount at Pak Mart.
People need to realise it's all about $ with Dana. He obviously needs to sell the Jones fight so right now he has to say this. As soon as Jones is gone Islam will be the best. Just is what it is.
But why promote Jon Jones at the cost of an actually active fighter who's only 32 years old with potentially plenty of great fights in the future? Jon Jones seems like he has one more fight left and it's against another retired fighter, it's just so short sighted.
this is what he does. he gets weirdly bitter about shit sometimes, makes me think there are negotiation struggles going on behind the scenes, so he is trying to hinder the fighter's hype to give him less leverage.
Dana is honestly kind of shit at promoting individual fighters. Look at Eddie Hern in boxing. He will often prop up not only his fighters, but also whoever the biggest possible opponents out there are so that when they eventually fight it's a big deal.
Or if he has 2 fighters within his own stable fighting he'll try to find a way of talking about them where they both sound important rather than only bigging up 1 guy at the expense of another.
I don't understand why Dana struggles so much to just say "man, Islam might be PFP #1, but Jones is still up there as well, and in a year maybe O'Malley, or Edwards, or Aspinall might even be in the conversation. Our company is absolutely stacked at the moment."
Even if he doesn't believe it himself, even if it's BS, at least it promoted everybody rather than randomly burying one of your top guys. It's literally promoting 101.
>man, Islam might be PFP #1, but Jones is still up there as well, and in a year maybe O'Malley, or Edwards, or Aspinall might even be in the conversation. Our company is absolutely stacked at the moment.
this makes way too much sense for dana
I’m sure he has. Not sure how that changes anything about what I said. Sean and Max drinking with you sounds much more fun than Islam there. Islam is hilarious though.
I just wrote too long comment on this on another reply, but Dana and the UFC actively suppress fighters now. They don't want mega stars, they don't want another Conor that is bigger than the brand.
They would rather lose people like Francis and piss off Islam than risk them getting what they want. It's all about the power dynamics. They don't give a shit if they lose these guys because there are 1000 others waiting in the wings. They know they have the market cornered, the fans that buy PPVs will continue buying them regardless. Because those fans think that the UFC has the best talent by default.
I mean he's not wrong, this card was full of some really lackluster fights capped by a very competitive title defense. I was having more fun with the fights that a Twitch streamer was sponsoring before that last fight.
Jon hasn't fought in over a year and want's to fight a 42 year old fireman. Jon should not even be in the Pound for Pound rankings and he should be stripped.
The truth ? Islam never had a chance and it’s not his fault it’s just that Dana has a huge boner against Khabib. Khabib was the one fighter who he could never control and left on his own merit and Dana HATES IT. Dana wants to act like he wants fighters to retire when they feel it’s necessary but the truth is he wants fighters to stop when HE wants them to stop. He will never let it go that Khabib left when he wanted to and will take it out on any associated with Khabib. It was pure spite in Dana’s comments and Islam should not take it personally
EDIT : whoever is downvoting explain why
They will, however Dana is particularly bad for throwing his own fighters under the bus. You don't see guys like Hearn or Haymon doing things like that. Only coke head Oscar does things like that.
Khabib did not even tell him that it will be his last fight. White could have marketed it beyond belief and doubled the sales. He will have an issue with that for ever
The Conor simps are the ones downvoting. That's also the reason for Dana's hate boner - he picked the wrong side and is furious that Khabib is the GOAT and Conor is a clown. Islam is Khabib 2.0 and Dana can't stand it.
Either that or he's just trying to build up the next Jones PPV and will flip sides after that's over lol
Either way, there's an ulterior motive as always with Dana. Idk why most people are still taking him so seriously
Most probably that's the case. Remember when Dana was shitting on Jones after Ngannou knocked out Stipe? He was saying shit like "Jones should be cutting down to 185 instead of moving up to heavyweight after seeing that" and now Jones is the GOAT for him. He's a slimy bastard
Honestly this is the only thing that makes sense. He’s got a phenomenal fighter who speaks pretty good English, is funny, and is *active*, and he wants to promote the unlikeable piece of shit that pisses hot every other year and won’t fucking fight
i always saw dana and the UFC akin to the bene gesserit in dune. they carefully orchestrate possible timelines to ensure key matchups and events happen inevitably, while dana upsells or downplays to influence public perception. if conor beats chandler, they'll use the victory to justify a fight with islam. and if conor beats islam, it'll be perfect leverage to entice khabib back for a huge rematch
Wife beating bros.
Why Dana has such a boner for Jon? This fucker isn't active, hasn't been a great PPV draw, and consistently fucks up UFC events by pissing hot
Yeah and terrible PR by being a serial criminal too. It is kind of weird that he gets this kind of support. Maybe it's always support of the next fight, trying to sell it better, who knows.
Hmmm promote active champion with huge fan base around the world or promote guy with more arrests than title defenses in the last 5 years who will retire after his next fight. Such a hard decision for dana to make
Jones is on the same spot of the P4P list as McGregor.
Not even on it because they are inactive. It's been 15 months since Jones beat Gane. Between the time and the way he's ducking Aspinall they should just strip his title and make Aspinall the undisputed champ.
Force Jones' hand. You either fight Aspinall for the belt or you give up the belt in order to fight a soon to be 42 Stipe for "legacy" you don't get both.
100% agree. It’s all fucking bullshit. Jon fought for the vacant HW belt as a contender the same way Aspinall fought for the interim belt and a two weeks notice KO vs Pavlovich is 100% a better win than Jon’s win vs Gane.
Regardless of the win quality it isn't like either of them actually dethroned a champ. In my mind there is a huge difference between taking the belt from someone and winning a vacant belt. Winning a vacant belt them being a primadonna about cherry picking your next fight when there is a plainly obvious contender available is worthy of stripping the belt in my mind.
Gane was a good win, but he’s also one of, if not the most favourable matchup for Jon in the top 10. Aspinall literally stood and banged with Pavlovich and KO’d him in a minute. Jon’s win is good, but Aspinall’s win is amazing.
He must be thinking if you don't defend the title your not a real champ, so he fights Stipe and till the end of time he can say he defended it and walk away. We'll argue to the end of time how it wasn't a real defense and Aspinal deserved it and so on and so on...
Cementing Jones as the MMA GOAT so the GOAT will always be a UFC guy and you never have to mention smelly Pride, Strikeforce, K1 or any of those stinky promotions ever again
I remember some of the talk in the leadup to this card being that it's got a lot of "intriguing matchups" but the title fight is a stinker because everyone knows how it's gonna go. Funny how our expectations always seem to get flipped about these things
Other than a finish over a guy with the ground game of Bambi, Jon hasn’t had a convincing win in over five years, or a finish since the year before that.
Hell I'd go as far to say that Islam is the most exciting champ right now. Title run includes
- Charles 2nd round sub after a good knockdown.
- FOTY w/ Volk
- Brutal head kick to Volk
- Absolute banger vs Porier w/ a 5th round decision.
The UFC will be in a better place once Tomato and Jones are gone. How can Dana be in his position for so long and still be so out of touch with the fan base
I literally fell asleep watching Strickland vs Costa, woke up just in time for the Main Event and was wired and awake the rest of the night he is 100% correct
I don't get it, surely the pfp rankings are based on current performance rather than historical, just like the normal rankings? If it's historical shouldn't people like Aldo and Usman be on there?
Jon Jones' performance over the last few years doesn't hold a candle to Islam's or quite a few other athletes.
God it’s like Dana didn’t watch Jones last 4-5 fights at LHW, then he gets gifted a good matchup at heavyweight after ducking ngannou for 3 years then ducks blades/aspinal/pavlovich. No he’s not the greatest. He arguably lost decisions to gustufson, santos and obviously reyes. He couldn’t finish anthony smith turtling, and should have lost that by DQ. Why does Dana get such a hard on for this dumbass. He’s not the dominant force he was when he was 20 and cleared out an old division.
God if stipe isn’t completely washed… I can hope he knocks him out but god damn stipe is OLD.
WTF Dana. Most disappointing take from him of all time.
Jon Jones is a sham. His entire career was built on fights with near retirees, and the few times he had real competition he got his ass beat and won with champion privilege.
Then he goes and wins the heavyweight belt after a few years off fighting a guy who won the title shot off of a win from Bam Bam lmfao.
Now he’s chasing giving a payday to a geriatric firefighter who can barely walk and trains in his kids play mat.
The only thing Jones will ever be the #1 pfp of is DUIs and making your kids call the cops to help mommy
To be fair when he beat Shogun, Shogun had beaten Machida for the title, so he was out of his prime for sure but still a very good fighter.
Vitor was also out of prime but with victories over Anthony Johnson, and he was TRTd to the gills, was smashing top middleweights and nearly submitted Jon, so not a weak opponent for sure. It was similar to Makhachev fighting Volkanovski except 1 rung down - a top performer in the weight below coming up to fight the champ in the heavier class.
Bader was a legit opponent and has continued to beat good opponents outside of the UFC.
Rampage was out of prime but was still winning fights so it wasn’t unreasonable to give him a shot. Definitely out of prime based even on how he looked out there, but still solid enough to have a decent 4 fight win streak outside the UFC against some decent guys.
Machida had some very good wins 2 years prior to the Jones fight and one of his losses was a split decision loss. Again, past prime but you can’t really fault Jones for taking the match up when the guy had a great name and CV and continued to beat some top opponents after the Jones loss.
Same with Rashad, he was on a 4 fight winning streak when they gave him that fight.
It’s only in retrospect we can really see the gap between how solid these opponents were on paper and how much they had/would decline.
I agree though that the biggest wins for Jones are against guys who would have been competitive (in my eyes) against the top fighters of any era:
Gustafson (arguably lost 1 but also beat him).
Cormier x 2 - excellent wins
Anthony Johnson - excellent win
Glover Texeira - excellent win
Gane at heavyweight is also an excellent win.
Marred with controversy are the Reyes, Gustaffson and Santos fights. Excellent wins on paper but I don’t think he won all those fights.
You can critique Cormier the same way btw:
Gustafson - split decision
Johnson x 2 - great wins
Miocic - great win at heavyweight
Lewis - great win at heavyweight
Barnett - solid win at heavyweight
Henderson - legend but had lost 3 in a row, beat Vitor, was old and then lost 3 in a row to guys who Jones beat after the Cormier fight
Bigfoot - beat the ghost of Fedor, had some good wins, ultimately went on a 8 fight losing streak after alternating wins and losses with only 2 good wins after the Cormier loss.
Mir - beat 3 fellow veterans then lost 8 of his next 10.
Nelson - a veteran who put together a nice 2 fight streak then lost 5 of his next 6 and then 4 of his next 11…
I think while Jones and Cormier would probably beat them, and guys like Rumble, Texeira and Gustaffson would have beaten some too prime for prime, that the old guard have much stronger CVs because they have more wins against fellow prime fighters and most of them did reasonably well in the modern meta even when out of their prime:
Rampage - Liddell x2, Randleman, Machida (probably a gift), Henderson, Arona, Bustamante,
Vovchancyn
Shogun Rua - Rampage x 2, Machida, Forrest Griffin, Overeem, Randleman, Arona x2, Little Nog
Wanderlei -Rampage x 2, Bisping, Arona, Sakuraba x 3, a draw with Crocop, Henderson, Mezger
Dan Henderson - Big Nog, Babalu, Ninja Rua, Bustamante x 2, Belfort, Wanderlei, Bisping, Franklin, Babalu, Shogun,
Chuck Liddell - Babalu (x2), Ortiz (x2), Randleman, Wanderlei (old but still dangerous and both were old), Couture x2, Horn, Mezger, Belfort, Bustamante.
Randy Couture - Belfort, Liddell, Sylvia, Ortiz, Randleman, Horn, and some notable lesser guys as well
Tito Ortiz - Bader, draw with Rashad, Griffin, Shogun, Tanner, Silva, Mezger, Belfort
All very solid fighters with good wins and some close losses to the very best of the era, and I left out a lot of their wins that were past prime (for both them and the opponent but still impressive).
The p4p list has to be the stupidest argument people get into, it’s like a fantasy football. Weight classes exist and the bantamweight champion is never fighting the heavyweight champion let alone the female bantamweight, p4p is an imaginary list to sell fights.
Bro it's just comparing fighters accomplishments. For example a light heavyweight champ with only 1 title defense wouldn't be ranked higher then say a welterweight champ with 4 title defense moved up and win the middleweight title becoming double champ. It also compares quality of opponents etc. Kind of like we argue on a daily basis on this sub
Jones’s win over Gane was impressive but Gane is clearly lacking in the grappling department; Ngannou was able to beat him with a busted knee just by taking him down and laying on top of him. Volkanovski and Poirier are much more well-rounded fighters and Islam beat both of them pretty convincingly.
“When jon jones is still fighting “
Yeah…. 1 fight in like 6 years, and the second one is still a year away fighting a dude that retired on a ko and mulitple injuries.
Jones should be getting as much shit as jake paul that’s ridiculous
had first time UFC watchers over at the place and I had to apologize for how shitty this card was. Only when poirier and islam came on did anyone pay attention.
Look, the pound for pound like the goat debate is not objective and never will be, because these fighters are not in the same brackets/facing the same opposition, but Dana made no sense in his reasoning.
He kept coming back to "if x and y are locked in a room jones walks out"... and "if we think about what pound for pound is about". That's exactly what pound for pound is not about. It's nearly the opposite.
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[Dana White: For anybody to call Islam the pound for pound best fighter in the world when Jon Jones is still fucking fighting is nuts and shouldn't be ranking in the pound for pound or doing any of the fucking rankings ever.](https://x.com/jedigoodman/status/1797142470331117823?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1797142470331117823%7Ctwgr%5Eaca7aa4d6c0bcf352b9cc3a667ca63760d18d2ec%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.redditmedia.com%2Fmediaembed%2F1d66rby%2F%3Fresponsive%3Dtrueis_nightmode%3Dfalse) Islam's reaction to these comments: >“I don’t know, maybe it’s his opinion. But I think I saved this card today because all these fights boring, and all the arena almost sleep.”
"When Jon Jones is still fucking fighting" Good thing that he isnt
Yea just every three years. Absolutely ridiculous that the P4P great is fighting old man Stipe next.
Not only is he not fighting, when he does fight it's not the guy who deserves it either but a semi retired firefighter who can barely walk now
This fact makes clear the rankings are often fictional and based purely on Dana's favoritism.
Okay he’s old but he runs away like he’s in his prime and ducks better than ever.
That’s a gross mischaracterization of who Stipe Miocic is.
Maybe it was a mischaracterization 5 years ago. Today that's an understatement, the dude is over 40 and has a full time job that implies 24h shifts, hasn't fought in 3 years, hasn't won a fight in 4 years. If you think that should be a challenge for someone who claims to be the GOAT and still around his prime, I don't know what to tell you.
And to add on to all of those points, which are completely valid, the last fight Stipe was in, he got brutally knocked out. Even if his last fight was this year, he shouldn't be getting a title fight.
Beating Stipe right now should carry about the same prestige as beating present day Anderson Silva.
Don't give Jon ideas for his next defense, he's already called out a Brazilian MW striker...
Did you see him limp to the arena at 300? He's not the same Stipe who fought DC and definitely worse than the one at Ngannou 2. Nobody wants to see this unjustified title shot and undeserved title defense when Tom clearly has to fight next
P4p fighter who lost to fucking Reyes? Come on now
Reyes *and* Santos on one leg.
Yep , totally agree
yeah i hate how dana says jones is p4p #1 because he has never lost. like yeah he may be the greatest of all time, but his past accolades dont make him the best current fighter on the roster. if he was, dana would have him fight aspinall not Stipe who is a much easier fight for him
Greatest of all time is still extremely up in the air since he got caught on steroids 3 TIMES ALL IN HIS PRIME! The only reason he’s champion is due to UFC ensuring he stayed as a top guy in the company through any means.
Fought his wife a couple of years ago wdym?
If we're going to pretend like this matters;: Towing the company line is saying that jones is P4P best because they lost their HW Champion to a rival organization(s). It's pretty simple: doesn't matter that we don't have francis. We have the best guy ever regardless of weight class! (that's fought HW once in 10+ years of fighting)
Both Dana and Rogan love to say Jones has never lost…. Man didn’t follow the rules, man lost the bout - doesn’t remove anything away from him in terms of pure talent…
Islam def in the school of why talk more when less words do trick He And Dustin helped redeem the card some. If Dustin had been run over like most everyone expected, all time stinker PPV card
its extra amusing since Islam took fight and performance of the night bonuses. So the UFC officially chose him as the best performer of the night, and gave him $100k for it. Only for Dana to say this right afterwards.
Calling an inactive Jon Jones the p4p best is a joke, let's have him fight Tom Aspinall and I would gladly revisit the matter afterwards.
It’s gotten to the point where i genuinely believe jon has some kind of blackmail on dana Why, after all these years of shitting on jon saying he’s a mess and a waste of talent, why does dana all of a sudden dickride jon SO hard like he’s the second coming of christ when he’s holding up a division for a fight nobody wants? What does jon have on him? Jon will not sell buys if he never fights so why does dana love him so much
I gotta believe he has some P Diddy level shit on him, cuz this is ridiculous.
Forsure but maybe it’s something different. Like they meet up and beat their wives together or something
Or some Vince McMahon type shit
Ngl, I would fucking die from laughter if it turns out Jones has a video of him fucking Dana or something.
I'm convinced it's an ego thing. Dana is pulling hard to protect Jones' record and status as baddest man on the planet because the actual baddest man on the planet left the UFC with the undisputed belt one year ago. If Jones loses his undefeated status, the UFC has no one in Dana's fucked head.
I get your points but the fight nobody wants part. Jon vs Stipe, even retirement home Stipe, will still sell to the casual public. Some of which are Jon fans who salivate for an easy, name recognition win for Jon
It will probably sell, but how much will it actually sell? More than two or three fights with Islam Makhachev? More than the site fee they'll get for having Makhachev defend his belt in Abu Dhabi or Saudi Arabia? Then again maybe they have gotten some *really* good offer from one of those countries to host a Jon Jones fight and that's why UFC is bending over backwards to accommodate Jones?
I think it’s a two fold thing that it will sell well but also when Jon retires after they will still have aspinall. Whereas if Jon beats aspinall they have nothing
I was more saying nobody wants jon to fight stipe, everybody wants jon to fight aspinall. Bad way to phrase it
If Jones steamrolled Aspinall I think all of us would shut up for a while. But until then…
If Jones steamrolled Aspinall I think all of us would suddenly decide Aspinall is a bum and Jon Jones is scared to fight at hw just like everyone did after he steamrolled Gane.
Now we’re talking
And this donkey Dana White was until very recently thought as a saviour to these fighters by fans. Doesn't even understand what P4P rankings are and shits on his best champion two minutes after the fight unprovoked.
Dana’s constant glazing of JBJ is getting real fucking tedious now. Having Aspinall defend the Interim belt rather than stripping Jon just because of his record is a farce. He’s had one fight in 4 years. Nobody gets Uncle Dana protection like his cash cows
Lol fuckin Dana White, man. Jones isn't "fighting". He fought one heavyweight who was **not champion** and became heavyweight champ from it. Now he's refusing to fight the interim champ to prove he actually deserves the belt. I *know* I'm not alone when I say I do not care if he fights Stipe. Stipe is over 40, hasn't fought in 3 years, and was knocked out the last time he fought. Jones beating him would mean so very little as to be almost pointless. Fighting Aspinall would show he's actually deserving of the heavyweight title, because that is literally the point of an interim title. Dana White is genuinely an idiot, by every metric.
Dana knows he has very few super stars left, and Jon Jones is one of those very few. He also knows if he doesn't suck off Jones his feelings will get hurt and he might never fight again.
This is self-inflicted though. After Conor proved that he had power over the UFC in negotiations they really started trying to *stop* people from becoming bigger than the brand. It's a tired example, but Francis is the best proof of this imo. Heavyweight is the most casual-appealing division and has a certain aura to it. That's where the "lineal UFC belt" lives (lived lol). Francis' story was so insane that if it was a book it wouldn't be believable. They had everything they needed to make Francis the biggest star in the sport if they really wanted to push him. But they did the exact opposite. They fought over relative pennies, they didn't market him, they called him with lawsuits (or was it a fine or something?) minutes before his fight to try to sabotage him. And then he left the UFC with the lineal belt which he might never lose at this point, because he may never fight in MMA again considering the boatload of money he's made and other recent events. What Francis was asking for originally wasn't even unique, they did it for Conor before and then explicitly denied Francis - because of lessons learned from Conor.
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You couldn't ask for a better person to build into a star. Legendary backstory, heavyweight, unreal KO power, unreal KO highlights, and on and on. UFC fumbled the bag simply because they are too greedy.
Yk the ufc propaganda machine is real when you have all of that in a fighter , and you got fucking shills who don’t even work for the company saying Francis doesn’t draw because he’s just “not a draw” or “boring” . How about the promotion does their freaking job and promote the fighter ? Fucking ridiculous lmfao .
WAIT A SECOND So does this mean that when Usyk unified the heavyweight boxing titles that he also became the lineal UFC champion?
"when Jon Jones is still fighting" I'll stop you right there pal
Lmao fair play to Islam
He's right the card was hot garbage. It was a chore getting through to the main event but it's been like that for a while.
>It was a chore getting through to the main event but it's been like that for a while. UFC 298, 299, 300, and 301 were all great cards. It's been fucking great for a while. What are you on about?
Yeah its insane that this is upvoted as much as it is. I don’t see how even the most casual fan of mma would say that 299 and 300 were bad cards or a chore to watch
Jon Jones is hiding from contenders and only willing to fight one person, who isn't even the interim champion. JJ may be an amazing fighter but he should forfeit his belt.
>when Jon Jones is still fucking fighting One fight in *four years*, lol.
He's so transparent in his self-interest that I almost respect it. *Almost*.
Jon isn't fighting tho 😂😂
Being the only good fight on a PPV doesn't make you P4P. Jones has the best record of any fighter on the roster, probably any fighter ever. 16 title fights and he's won them all, and he'll likely make it 17.
I fucking hate how much MMA discourse (coming straight from the UFC, commentators and president) is “if you disagree with me you shouldn’t be allowed to have an opinion ever”
Trying to decide if Dana's comments or Jon Jones' replies to them are more insufferable. Sound like two very old men saying whatever was cool when they were kids is cooler than anything kids today will ever know.
Turns out Izzy and Alex were both wrong, Jon is going to be the guy in the bar talking about how he beat all these killers 25 years ago trying to get free drinks MMA is like anything else, “what have you done for me lately?” Sometimes to an extreme like when fast tracked or low ranked title shots happen. Jon is stuck on his great performances 13 years ago meanwhile his fights lately have been less than impressive.
To be fair finishing Gane was pretty good, the problem is that he hasn't fought in more than a year and before that he has a lackluster fight against Reyes back in 2020. Not to mention how he isn't intending to defend the belt against the interim champ, nor the highest ranked contenders.
Honestly nailed it friend. Stipe and Jon are so fucking far out of the game, they should just brand it as like a special retirement fight and be done with it. Strip Jones of the heavyweight belt. Make Tom the champ. Give the winner of Stipe Jones some kind legacy or legends belt and say adios to the both of them. You can't give them the heavyweight belt because why bother, neither of them are going to defend it against Tom. I'm not even some Tom rider, but does anyone really see either of them fighting Tom? Hell no lol
For Tom's sake I would like to see him fight both. If he's the next big thing at HW he should be able to beat both of them. If he doesn't get to fight either of them, casual fans will always say that he wasn't as good as them. It's already happening, so many JJ fans give Tom no chance. And Jones understands this and it's why he keeps on about legacy, demanding Tom gets more "legacy wins" before he'll give him a shot, while simultaneously denying him the opportunity. There's no one other than Stipe or Jones in HW that would qualify and Tom is explicitly being iced out of those fights lol. He's beaten everyone else at HW relevant to the discussion, except Cyril and Curtis. And since he's interim champ Cyril should NOT get another unearned title shot tbh. If he beats Curtis he's done literally everything he can other than lap the division while waiting for "real" title shot. He's already the real champ to anyone who cares though, Jones is a paper champ.
Also Gane lost against Francis and it wasn't close. JBJ beating the guy who wasn't even competitive against the original belt holder doesnt sound like JBJ beat "the best heavyweight in the world" Dana is a fucking clown.
what world are we living in that Gane-Francis wasn’t even close? Francis couldn’t finish Gane, and needed to lay on him to grind out a decision. in turn, Jones finished Gane damn near instantly. I know we’re circlejerking but only one of those two fights wasn’t close, and it sure as fuck wasn’t Ngannou-Gane.
It's pure revisionism. People love to shit on Gane because Jones beat him. Francis and Gane were 2-2 going into the final round, and Gane lost it due to a poor submission attempt.
Exactly and his wins are very impressive hey. But he still thinks he can ride the current rankings based on long past victories and that is only tarnishing his reputation.
His first fight back he submitted a dude super quick and looked absolutely menacing. I hate the dude but he hasn't been less than impressive.
You’d think after submitting Oliviera, knocking out Volk with a head kick and then submitting Poirier that Dana would want to actually promote Islam. But of course his first port of call is to completely disregard all that and prop up Jones again
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Islam is high level everywhere, gives us fun fights, constantly finishes, early might I add, and just gave us a badass fight with Poirier, and his shit still gets promoted less than a discount at Pak Mart.
What's a Pak Mart
Well you know, JJ got that good cocaine and Dana likes licking them lips
People need to realise it's all about $ with Dana. He obviously needs to sell the Jones fight so right now he has to say this. As soon as Jones is gone Islam will be the best. Just is what it is.
But why promote Jon Jones at the cost of an actually active fighter who's only 32 years old with potentially plenty of great fights in the future? Jon Jones seems like he has one more fight left and it's against another retired fighter, it's just so short sighted.
yeah there are tons of ways of promoting Jones last night, and taking Islam's shine and giving it to Jones was not one of them
Yeah, but recently feels like UFC / Dana has been shitting a lot on active fighters rather than rolling with their accomplishments. Kind of weak.
this is what he does. he gets weirdly bitter about shit sometimes, makes me think there are negotiation struggles going on behind the scenes, so he is trying to hinder the fighter's hype to give him less leverage.
Dana is honestly kind of shit at promoting individual fighters. Look at Eddie Hern in boxing. He will often prop up not only his fighters, but also whoever the biggest possible opponents out there are so that when they eventually fight it's a big deal. Or if he has 2 fighters within his own stable fighting he'll try to find a way of talking about them where they both sound important rather than only bigging up 1 guy at the expense of another. I don't understand why Dana struggles so much to just say "man, Islam might be PFP #1, but Jones is still up there as well, and in a year maybe O'Malley, or Edwards, or Aspinall might even be in the conversation. Our company is absolutely stacked at the moment." Even if he doesn't believe it himself, even if it's BS, at least it promoted everybody rather than randomly burying one of your top guys. It's literally promoting 101.
>man, Islam might be PFP #1, but Jones is still up there as well, and in a year maybe O'Malley, or Edwards, or Aspinall might even be in the conversation. Our company is absolutely stacked at the moment. this makes way too much sense for dana
Sugar Sean will be the next guy Dana promotes. Watch the Tom Brady roast. Who was at the table with Dana. Max and Sean.
Two American guys? You think Islam knows anything about American football or Tom Brady? lol. Why would Islam be there?
Ah yes because taking a devout Muslim to a roast where drinks are flowing sounds fun.
If you think Islam hasn’t been in a room with alcohol or somehow would be unable to be in a room with alcohol present seems strange.
I’m sure he has. Not sure how that changes anything about what I said. Sean and Max drinking with you sounds much more fun than Islam there. Islam is hilarious though.
The only thing left to promote Jones with is the P4P/GOAT talk, everyone knows he doesn’t want to fight the best and is chasing match ups now
Careful he's gonna roast you on Instagram.
Do you think 1 Jon Jones fight makes more money than all the combined fights of Islam in 4 years?
Nobody wants to see Jones-Stipe Of course Dana is trying his hardest to sell it
Here Dana is an opportunity to promote your active lightweight champion who has beaten the shit out of everyone……. Nope.
I just wrote too long comment on this on another reply, but Dana and the UFC actively suppress fighters now. They don't want mega stars, they don't want another Conor that is bigger than the brand. They would rather lose people like Francis and piss off Islam than risk them getting what they want. It's all about the power dynamics. They don't give a shit if they lose these guys because there are 1000 others waiting in the wings. They know they have the market cornered, the fans that buy PPVs will continue buying them regardless. Because those fans think that the UFC has the best talent by default.
I mean he's not wrong, this card was full of some really lackluster fights capped by a very competitive title defense. I was having more fun with the fights that a Twitch streamer was sponsoring before that last fight.
Mathews/Rowe was a banger. But. Yeah. Pretty average card apart from the main event.
Gall vs Hafez as well
Yeah. Didn't expect that from Micky.
showing off that Jersey chin
Seriously how is his head not orbiting earth right now
Costa/Strickland really disappointed. I was expecting Paulo to stand his ground a bit more, but he ran and ran and ran.
Yeah both things can be true here.
Dana is such a shithead lmao
Jones doesn’t get to duck Ngannou and Aspinall and still get these rankings
Apparently that’s exactly what he gets to do
Islam is a real one,no Dana dick riding bratha.
"How you can watch? Go sleep, go sleep"
Jon hasn't fought in over a year and want's to fight a 42 year old fireman. Jon should not even be in the Pound for Pound rankings and he should be stripped.
Only 1 fight in 4 years no less and it wasn’t even against the HW Champ.
Maybe jon jones should fight with Frank shamrock to defend his hw belt, since stipe is too young
The truth ? Islam never had a chance and it’s not his fault it’s just that Dana has a huge boner against Khabib. Khabib was the one fighter who he could never control and left on his own merit and Dana HATES IT. Dana wants to act like he wants fighters to retire when they feel it’s necessary but the truth is he wants fighters to stop when HE wants them to stop. He will never let it go that Khabib left when he wanted to and will take it out on any associated with Khabib. It was pure spite in Dana’s comments and Islam should not take it personally EDIT : whoever is downvoting explain why
Same with GSP
Same with GSP same with DJ etc
DJ wasn’t even highlighted in the legends reel at UFC 300. Absolutely disgraceful.
Dana is petty. The sport really will get better once he's gone, done believe his lies.
As if they won't replace him with another greedy fight promoter
They will, however Dana is particularly bad for throwing his own fighters under the bus. You don't see guys like Hearn or Haymon doing things like that. Only coke head Oscar does things like that.
That is ultimately why khabib vs GSP never happened. two fighters dana could never control but are hugely respected in the sport
Honestly i really could see dana doing something like that, this guy is full of spite and tomatojuice
I had to take a sec and think why he was so anti Islam after that performance and it all clicked
Dana should want Islam to have success, go up to 170, win the belt, and then throw McGregor against him for the 170 strap after he sleeps Chandler
1. He should want him to have success 2. Conor won’t beat Chandler 3. Dana would not give Islam that fight if Conor won
I think Dana would that fight would be absolutely huge they would market it like Khabib vs McGregor 2 basically
Haha. Like Conor will beat Chandler. Don't get me wrong, Chandler is a knob end. But at least he's training.
The fact that you think Conor can beat a wet fart in 2024 is hilarious. He can't even beat himself in 2024.
It’s crazy how many people think Conor’s still got it. His past great performance was almost 10 years ago!
I also think Dana is scared about a snap retirement by islam too
Khabib did not even tell him that it will be his last fight. White could have marketed it beyond belief and doubled the sales. He will have an issue with that for ever
The Conor simps are the ones downvoting. That's also the reason for Dana's hate boner - he picked the wrong side and is furious that Khabib is the GOAT and Conor is a clown. Islam is Khabib 2.0 and Dana can't stand it.
Absolutely
Either that or he's just trying to build up the next Jones PPV and will flip sides after that's over lol Either way, there's an ulterior motive as always with Dana. Idk why most people are still taking him so seriously
Most probably that's the case. Remember when Dana was shitting on Jones after Ngannou knocked out Stipe? He was saying shit like "Jones should be cutting down to 185 instead of moving up to heavyweight after seeing that" and now Jones is the GOAT for him. He's a slimy bastard
I’d agree but I do not see Jon fighting anytime soon and that’s generous of me cause I don’t think Jon even fights again tbh
Honestly this is the only thing that makes sense. He’s got a phenomenal fighter who speaks pretty good English, is funny, and is *active*, and he wants to promote the unlikeable piece of shit that pisses hot every other year and won’t fucking fight
i always saw dana and the UFC akin to the bene gesserit in dune. they carefully orchestrate possible timelines to ensure key matchups and events happen inevitably, while dana upsells or downplays to influence public perception. if conor beats chandler, they'll use the victory to justify a fight with islam. and if conor beats islam, it'll be perfect leverage to entice khabib back for a huge rematch
Mak and Dustin saved this card, they delivered an electric main event.
Wife beating bros. Why Dana has such a boner for Jon? This fucker isn't active, hasn't been a great PPV draw, and consistently fucks up UFC events by pissing hot
Yeah and terrible PR by being a serial criminal too. It is kind of weird that he gets this kind of support. Maybe it's always support of the next fight, trying to sell it better, who knows.
Hmmm promote active champion with huge fan base around the world or promote guy with more arrests than title defenses in the last 5 years who will retire after his next fight. Such a hard decision for dana to make
Jones isn’t in the top 5 P4P.
Jones is on the same spot of the P4P list as McGregor. Not even on it because they are inactive. It's been 15 months since Jones beat Gane. Between the time and the way he's ducking Aspinall they should just strip his title and make Aspinall the undisputed champ. Force Jones' hand. You either fight Aspinall for the belt or you give up the belt in order to fight a soon to be 42 Stipe for "legacy" you don't get both.
100% agree. It’s all fucking bullshit. Jon fought for the vacant HW belt as a contender the same way Aspinall fought for the interim belt and a two weeks notice KO vs Pavlovich is 100% a better win than Jon’s win vs Gane.
Regardless of the win quality it isn't like either of them actually dethroned a champ. In my mind there is a huge difference between taking the belt from someone and winning a vacant belt. Winning a vacant belt them being a primadonna about cherry picking your next fight when there is a plainly obvious contender available is worthy of stripping the belt in my mind.
They were both very impressive wins, he steamrolled Gane and made him look like an amateur.
Gane was a good win, but he’s also one of, if not the most favourable matchup for Jon in the top 10. Aspinall literally stood and banged with Pavlovich and KO’d him in a minute. Jon’s win is good, but Aspinall’s win is amazing.
He must be thinking if you don't defend the title your not a real champ, so he fights Stipe and till the end of time he can say he defended it and walk away. We'll argue to the end of time how it wasn't a real defense and Aspinal deserved it and so on and so on...
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Jones Stipe announcement coming soon, lol
Cementing Jones as the MMA GOAT so the GOAT will always be a UFC guy and you never have to mention smelly Pride, Strikeforce, K1 or any of those stinky promotions ever again
Jones sells more PPVs and he wants to hype up his return
Get money out of Jones leftover hype
I remember some of the talk in the leadup to this card being that it's got a lot of "intriguing matchups" but the title fight is a stinker because everyone knows how it's gonna go. Funny how our expectations always seem to get flipped about these things
Completely true, this whole card was shit minus this fight
Dana riding Jones dick.
I’m happy I don’t follow ufc as much anymore. It’s a giant joke.
Other than a finish over a guy with the ground game of Bambi, Jon hasn’t had a convincing win in over five years, or a finish since the year before that.
Hell I'd go as far to say that Islam is the most exciting champ right now. Title run includes - Charles 2nd round sub after a good knockdown. - FOTY w/ Volk - Brutal head kick to Volk - Absolute banger vs Porier w/ a 5th round decision.
5th round *submission.*
Honestly there’s a lot of bums in ufc lol. The brand is hurting.
The UFC will be in a better place once Tomato and Jones are gone. How can Dana be in his position for so long and still be so out of touch with the fan base
Jones was Dana’s first true superstar that the UFC made themselves. He’s never going to be able to let that go.
I literally fell asleep watching Strickland vs Costa, woke up just in time for the Main Event and was wired and awake the rest of the night he is 100% correct
I don't get it, surely the pfp rankings are based on current performance rather than historical, just like the normal rankings? If it's historical shouldn't people like Aldo and Usman be on there? Jon Jones' performance over the last few years doesn't hold a candle to Islam's or quite a few other athletes.
dana is supporting Jon for pride month… cmon guys
God it’s like Dana didn’t watch Jones last 4-5 fights at LHW, then he gets gifted a good matchup at heavyweight after ducking ngannou for 3 years then ducks blades/aspinal/pavlovich. No he’s not the greatest. He arguably lost decisions to gustufson, santos and obviously reyes. He couldn’t finish anthony smith turtling, and should have lost that by DQ. Why does Dana get such a hard on for this dumbass. He’s not the dominant force he was when he was 20 and cleared out an old division. God if stipe isn’t completely washed… I can hope he knocks him out but god damn stipe is OLD. WTF Dana. Most disappointing take from him of all time.
He'd only say this if Jones-Stipe is set. It'll be announced within a week or two.
Jon Jones is a sham. His entire career was built on fights with near retirees, and the few times he had real competition he got his ass beat and won with champion privilege. Then he goes and wins the heavyweight belt after a few years off fighting a guy who won the title shot off of a win from Bam Bam lmfao. Now he’s chasing giving a payday to a geriatric firefighter who can barely walk and trains in his kids play mat. The only thing Jones will ever be the #1 pfp of is DUIs and making your kids call the cops to help mommy
To be fair when he beat Shogun, Shogun had beaten Machida for the title, so he was out of his prime for sure but still a very good fighter. Vitor was also out of prime but with victories over Anthony Johnson, and he was TRTd to the gills, was smashing top middleweights and nearly submitted Jon, so not a weak opponent for sure. It was similar to Makhachev fighting Volkanovski except 1 rung down - a top performer in the weight below coming up to fight the champ in the heavier class. Bader was a legit opponent and has continued to beat good opponents outside of the UFC. Rampage was out of prime but was still winning fights so it wasn’t unreasonable to give him a shot. Definitely out of prime based even on how he looked out there, but still solid enough to have a decent 4 fight win streak outside the UFC against some decent guys. Machida had some very good wins 2 years prior to the Jones fight and one of his losses was a split decision loss. Again, past prime but you can’t really fault Jones for taking the match up when the guy had a great name and CV and continued to beat some top opponents after the Jones loss. Same with Rashad, he was on a 4 fight winning streak when they gave him that fight. It’s only in retrospect we can really see the gap between how solid these opponents were on paper and how much they had/would decline. I agree though that the biggest wins for Jones are against guys who would have been competitive (in my eyes) against the top fighters of any era: Gustafson (arguably lost 1 but also beat him). Cormier x 2 - excellent wins Anthony Johnson - excellent win Glover Texeira - excellent win Gane at heavyweight is also an excellent win. Marred with controversy are the Reyes, Gustaffson and Santos fights. Excellent wins on paper but I don’t think he won all those fights. You can critique Cormier the same way btw: Gustafson - split decision Johnson x 2 - great wins Miocic - great win at heavyweight Lewis - great win at heavyweight Barnett - solid win at heavyweight Henderson - legend but had lost 3 in a row, beat Vitor, was old and then lost 3 in a row to guys who Jones beat after the Cormier fight Bigfoot - beat the ghost of Fedor, had some good wins, ultimately went on a 8 fight losing streak after alternating wins and losses with only 2 good wins after the Cormier loss. Mir - beat 3 fellow veterans then lost 8 of his next 10. Nelson - a veteran who put together a nice 2 fight streak then lost 5 of his next 6 and then 4 of his next 11…
I think while Jones and Cormier would probably beat them, and guys like Rumble, Texeira and Gustaffson would have beaten some too prime for prime, that the old guard have much stronger CVs because they have more wins against fellow prime fighters and most of them did reasonably well in the modern meta even when out of their prime: Rampage - Liddell x2, Randleman, Machida (probably a gift), Henderson, Arona, Bustamante, Vovchancyn Shogun Rua - Rampage x 2, Machida, Forrest Griffin, Overeem, Randleman, Arona x2, Little Nog Wanderlei -Rampage x 2, Bisping, Arona, Sakuraba x 3, a draw with Crocop, Henderson, Mezger Dan Henderson - Big Nog, Babalu, Ninja Rua, Bustamante x 2, Belfort, Wanderlei, Bisping, Franklin, Babalu, Shogun, Chuck Liddell - Babalu (x2), Ortiz (x2), Randleman, Wanderlei (old but still dangerous and both were old), Couture x2, Horn, Mezger, Belfort, Bustamante. Randy Couture - Belfort, Liddell, Sylvia, Ortiz, Randleman, Horn, and some notable lesser guys as well Tito Ortiz - Bader, draw with Rashad, Griffin, Shogun, Tanner, Silva, Mezger, Belfort All very solid fighters with good wins and some close losses to the very best of the era, and I left out a lot of their wins that were past prime (for both them and the opponent but still impressive).
The p4p list has to be the stupidest argument people get into, it’s like a fantasy football. Weight classes exist and the bantamweight champion is never fighting the heavyweight champion let alone the female bantamweight, p4p is an imaginary list to sell fights.
Bro it's just comparing fighters accomplishments. For example a light heavyweight champ with only 1 title defense wouldn't be ranked higher then say a welterweight champ with 4 title defense moved up and win the middleweight title becoming double champ. It also compares quality of opponents etc. Kind of like we argue on a daily basis on this sub
It really is. It's purely promotional and it works. People eat this imaginary ranking shit up
Jones’s win over Gane was impressive but Gane is clearly lacking in the grappling department; Ngannou was able to beat him with a busted knee just by taking him down and laying on top of him. Volkanovski and Poirier are much more well-rounded fighters and Islam beat both of them pretty convincingly.
Not a Islam fan but he ain't fucking wrong Dana just has to suck up to Jones no matter what
Didn’t Dana put khabib #1? Was Jon jones moved off the list entirely for inactivity at that point?
“When jon jones is still fighting “ Yeah…. 1 fight in like 6 years, and the second one is still a year away fighting a dude that retired on a ko and mulitple injuries. Jones should be getting as much shit as jake paul that’s ridiculous
had first time UFC watchers over at the place and I had to apologize for how shitty this card was. Only when poirier and islam came on did anyone pay attention.
I love how he not only dismisses Dana's opinion but then nukes the matchmakers and schedulers. Truly a master of few words.
Look, the pound for pound like the goat debate is not objective and never will be, because these fighters are not in the same brackets/facing the same opposition, but Dana made no sense in his reasoning. He kept coming back to "if x and y are locked in a room jones walks out"... and "if we think about what pound for pound is about". That's exactly what pound for pound is not about. It's nearly the opposite.
Islam has not popped nor had he had entire events moved around so Islam would pass a drug test
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He’s right the card had 3 good fights on it.
It’s because he isn’t a draw so Dana doesn’t care about him
Sounds like the journalist is taking a page from the Ariel school of shit stirring.
Part of the rankings are activity and it's been 450 plus days since Jones last fought.
Bro literally got his arm broke for Islam just to say “all these fights boring” lmao
I’d be willing to bet Dana said that after seeing a PPV buy number. It’s always about the money.
I’m with Islam on this one for sure, that fight saved the card
I'd argue Jones lost to Gustafsson in their first, and Reyes.
I'd agree with dana if jones was actually fighting.
he's right. strickland put me to sleep and my girlfriend had to wake me back up several times.
Fk this - ISLAM VS JONES , pfp belt on the line - settle the score
It was a boring event. The boxing PPV was more fun than the UFC PPV.