Bisping was a total paper champ who had a lucky night coming in as a replacement challenger and miraculously got the belt. His sole title defence was a contentious decision over a guy who had lost 3 of his last 5 fights and was as old then as Bisping is now. Then after the GSP fight he fought a top 5 MW, got stopped in the first round and retired. Theres a reason GSP came out of retirement specifically at that point, going for that belt, and then GTFO so fast. GSP did fight better fighters overall, but he also lost to ****ing Matt Serra. No slight on GSP, its normal to get caught sometimes, but thats precisely why its so ABnormal that Jon never did.
Because he never fought anyone capable of doing so. He ducked the HWs who could, left the division when there were LHWs who could have, and was fortunate enough to never have had to fight Rumble Johnson. Now tbf only the first really takes away from his legacy but still after all the **** he pulled I think it should definitely take away from his overall legacy especially compared to someone like GSP who has never had a single controversy and the fact that GSP fought better competition should have him ranked much higher.
GSP had controversy over the Hendricks fight, his early retirement just when USADA came in, how he retired a second time instead of defending the MW belt, and that he used to cover himself in vaseline for an added advantage. Obviously hes not a degenerate dirty sociopath like Jon is, but hes not beyond reproach either. Jon fought a ton of ATGs, them not being capable of hurting him says more about Jon than them. I mean DC is probably the second best head to head LHW ever and probably a top 5 all time head to head HW too. I liked Rumble a lot but I never really brought into him as being some exceptional threat to Jon. He had a punchers chance I guess but he lacked heart and was pretty basic. Not to mention he got absolutely wrecked literally in the first round by Vitor who then went on to fight Jon in his very next fight.
Most of that is overblown imo. He was one of the biggest pushers of VADA and USADA testing before it became mainstream and part of the reason he left was because UFC wasn't implementing it. Not to mention he last a step and was never the same after his ACL tear so no shame in leaving when he did. He retired the second time because of health issues that he got putting on the weight not because he ducked anyone which is understandable I'm sure he would have kept fighting and defended if he could. The vasoline stuff was once and it was a corner thing not on him and after an investigation there was no real advantage found and he was rubbed clean afterwards. So overall I don't think any of it takes away from his legacy like Jones antics do. He fought one ATG in Cormier and while a great fighter i don't think he's as good as guys in the lower divisions where talent pool is much bigger. Not to mention Cormier was pretty much tailor made for Jones with his inability to deal with kicks and defend body shots. That was before Rumble had his great run at LHW where he was knocking everyone out. That Rumble would have been interesting just because he had the power and the ability to land hard shots on Jones who never had great boxing but whether it would be enough idk but its definitely an interesting matchup. Now I don't hold it against Jones since Rumble was gone when he came back but I genuinely think Rumble had a good chance.
Jon Jones, beat better fighters, more ranked opponents and arguably never lost. Jon Jones has the record for number of ranked opponents as well as former champs at 16, GSP is 2nd with 13. Jones record- Ciryl Gane (UFC 285): Submitted to win the heavyweight title. Stipe Miocic (UFC 309): Won by KO/TKO. Dominick Reyes (UFC 247): Won by unanimous decision. Thiago Santos (UFC 239): Won by split decision. Anthony Smith (UFC 235): Won by unanimous decision. Alexander Gustafsson (UFC 232 & 165): Won by TKO and decision. Daniel Cormier (UFC 182 & 214): One win, one No Contest. Glover Teixeira (UFC 172): Won by decision. Chael Sonnen (UFC 159): Won by TKO. Vitor Belfort (UFC 152): Won by submission. Lyoto Machida (UFC 140): Won by submission. Quinton Jackson (UFC 135): Won by submission. Maurício Rua (UFC 128): Won by TKO to become youngest champion. Ryan Bader (UFC 126): Won by submission. vs GSP's record Sean Sherk (UFC 56) BJ Penn (UFC 58, UFC 94) Matt Hughes (UFC 65, UFC 79) Josh Koscheck (UFC 74, UFC 124) Matt Serra (UFC 83) Jon Fitch (UFC 87) Thiago Alves (UFC 100) Dan Hardy (UFC 111) Jake Shields (UFC 129) Carlos Condit (UFC 154) Nick Diaz (UFC 158) Johny Hendricks (UFC 1 It's not close, Jones is just better. Better names, better performances, more title fights.
The Gane fight was just as calculated, if not more so than GSP over Bisping, Then Jones GTFO just like you said GSP did. Oh wait he didn’t actually. He decided to fight a fighter without a win for 5 years, hadn’t been in the ring for 4 years all the while ducking the interim champ and got retired by said interim champ without even fighting him. If you want to try and take a shot at GSP for the Bisping win, at least be consistent.
Gane was every bit the layup that Bisping was. I’m not making a comparison of who’s the better fighter out of the two. I’m just asking the man to be consistent. Only one of these two posed an actual threat to their opponent that night and it sure as hell wasn’t Ciryl Gane.
Not really. Bisping got the title by fluke-KO’ing a guy that subbed him with 0 effort when they were in their prime. He then defended the title against a 46 year old #13 ranked Dan Henderson and barely won. Many people thought Gane beat Ngannou and got robbed, and unlike Bisping he was without a doubt the best fighter in the division after Ngannou left. What Jones did is way more impressive.