Jon Jones vs George St. Pierre: who do you rank higher and why?

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.