https://www.lowkickmma.com/report-jon-jones-threatens-kill-drug-tester/ "Report – ‘Extremely intoxicated’ UFC champ Jon Jones threatens to ‘Kill’ drug tester, steals cell phone" What a man.
I was going to make a thread on Jon Jones and his busts, but I might as well just tag onto this one. Can someone explain to me, a guy who is much more of a boxing fan than MMA, why Jones is so highly regarded when he has had two drug busts and two other questionable drug incidents? I have seen lists and commentary where he is called the best ever, but really, the guy seems to be to be just a drug cheat.
He is a proven 2 times ped's cheat. FACT. He was given a 4 yr ban for this. I have no idea why so many people call him the goat when you consider his track record on ped's over the years. Look at his performance pre USADA compared to post USADA in the ufc. Yes there would be some fighters who may be getting away with using ped's but when it is proven multiple times as it is with Jones how can you say he is the goat. Is Lance Armstrong the goat ? Of course not for obvious reasons. How come Jones is the guy who is always getting caught with ped's in his system rather than other guys who are continually getting tested as well. He is a cheat and always has been like his nfl brother who was also tested positive for ped's when in the nfl.
Jones has only 1 NC and its against a guy he beat clean who only got the belt because Jones got in a car accident. If not for said accident that fighter would not have gotten to fight Jones a 2nd time. Jones is the best ever by every conceivable metric. The only people who disagree are those who have a nostaglic connection to the champs that came before him. Jon Jones's MMA resume is basically Joe Louis's boxing resume if Joe Louis never lost to Schmeling or anyone else. If Joe Louis screwed up a bit it'd be pretty hard to deny Joe Louis was still the greatest right? Thats what we have here.
Yeah Jones dominated a bunch of old fighters from a previous era who were all blown up middleweights. As soon the division starts catching up and athletic well rounded 6'3-6'5ers started becoming common place he started struggling and getting questionable decisions interspersed with extended absences due to doping/drug suspensions and legal issues. His legacy is definitely tainted in the eyes of any reasonable person.
Well, no, because he is a PEDs cheat. Whether he is really the best ever or not is a matter of faith at best.
You make out like he was only busted once lol. He was only "clean" in that fight as USADA came in 6 months after it, then he was peeing hot a number of times. The 2016 rematch with DC was pulled due to him being busted. That 1 NC you hold onto was from him peeing hot again in 2017 just before the 2nd DC fight but wasn't revealed until after the rematch. Then peed hot again in 2018 at weigh ins. UFC had to pay off another State commission to ignore it and move the event there. Once he did start passing tests he went life and death with Reyes and Thiago. Reyes has since been flat lined in every other fight since and Thiago also showed nothing. It was clear he was juiced to the gills before USADA came along, but to his defence pretty much everyone else he faced during that run was also on gear.
The best fighters on his resume were washed up natural middleweights. That's similar to Beterbiev at Lightheavy beating up middleweights for a living. His most impressive victories were against Cormier. That being said he is still one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time. The whole GOAT argument is subjective anyway, if 80 percent of the people he faced were the size and dimensions of Gustaffson and himself, he probably would have several losses already, his size played a big role, he could have easily lost the fights against the opponents that were just as tall and had formidable reach like he did (look at the first Gus fight, and look at the later fights against people with similar dimensions as him). I don't ridicule Jon Jones much for his failed drug tests since all his opponents were probably juicing, at some points anyway.
Jones was about to lose to Gus then he hit him with these nasty elbows and Gus couldn't walk the last 1.5 rounds. They then had a rematch and Jones dealt with him no problem. Fighters his size could have only challenged him if they had the grappling which most guys that size don't have. The Reyes fight wasn't a war like the Gustaffson fight it was a close fight Jones was doing what he needed to do to win the decision. The Santos fight says split decision but Santos got injured in round 2 and the judge was going rogue. Santos broke virtually every bone in his leg in that fight. As his opponents have gotten bigger Jones is more of a point fighter. While he might be less able to dominate larger opponents its also a matter of avoiding risks he doesn't need to take. In the 2000s the average size of MMA fighters was much smaller across all weight classes guys Gus's size as good as him simply weren't around. Fedor the HW champ in Pride was 6 ft 0. At that time most of the best big fighters in MMA were fighting at LHW(205 pounds). A PPV headlined by a non title bout at LHW sold over 1 million buys. And Jones destroyed all of that in a year when he was 23 year olds. Anderson Silva was the one who avoided Jones opponents by fighting at MW which when he became champ was a brand new weight class/revived weight class of fighters who couldn't make it at LHW. I liken Jones's run to Louis's run in the 30s minus the Schmeling loss. And yes Carnera was huge but the rest aren't HW size today maybe not even Max Baer. Does that mean that run is tainted?
I did say he is one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time. It cannot be argued though, size really played a huge role. No his run is not tainted, but the whole GOAT argument in any sport is REALLY subjective.
Jon Jones would have given Louis a closer fight in the ring than Carnera did, he was completely untrained and clumsy.
Jones is the GOAT of MMA. But he cannot box even by elite MMA standards. It is the one aspect of his game he doesn't have. Jones is a genius and perhaps he could teach himself to box at an elite level but if he could he has no power in his hands whatsoever. I feel like many have been subconciously taking out their frustrations with Tyson Fury on Carnera. We've always known these super tall HWs are less skilled than the shorter guys but people have been going a little overboard with Carnera.
