It’s been far too long but Jon Jones has finally retaken his place as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, at least according to the media members who vote on the UFC rankings.
‘Bones’ was removed from the rankings in April in the wake of the hit-and-run in which he was involved early last year.
While it was completely understandable that the promotion felt the need to punish Jones, there was never any doubt that the former light heavyweight champion was the best fighter in the world.
The only competition for that honour would have been from Demetrious Johnson but the fact that ‘Mighty Mouse’ has two losses and a draw on his record kind of gives the edge to Jones as, despite having an official loss to his name, that came by disqualification in a bout against Matt Hamill that he was dominating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYQQ6iPwGNQ
That’s why it was so strange when, after being reinstated to the UFC roster in October, that he wasn’t put right back to pound-for-pound number one.
If the purpose of the P4P rankings is to portray the best fighters in the world, regardless of weight classes, then why would Jon Jones suddenly be dropped to any position below first? He hadn’t lost, he hadn’t looked anything but perfectly dominant.
The whole world knew the greatest fighter in the world was Jon Jones but had to quietly accept the bizarre fact that he wasn’t number one according to the UFC’s rankings, up until Monday’s update.
As if they weren’t ridiculous enough already, Jones’ runner-up position in the UFC’s pound-for-pound rankings at the end of 2015 made them all but laughable.
With all due respect to ‘Mighty Mouse,’ who I consider the second best fighter in the world, Jones’ exploits at 205 lbs are just a little bit more impressive because, while he may not be as technical as his flyweight counterpart, the level of competition he has faced over the past five years is a grade above that which Johnson has faced.
Look at the list of monsters that Jones has beaten in the last five years.
He’s literally cleaned out his division, one of the most dangerous and competitive in the sport, eliminating more than one generation of fighter in the process. He’s disposed of the old guard like Lyoto Machida. He’s beaten the future of MMA in Alexander Gustafsson. And he’s beaten the current holder of the light heavyweight belt, Daniel Cormier… convincingly.
By all evidence available, Jon Jones is unbeatable (unless you can convince him to drop an elbow at an illegal angle).
The fact that he spent some time as an active fighter in any position lower than one on the pound-for-pound rankings is ridiculous.
It doesn’t matter now because ‘Jones’ has been put back in his rightful place and, judging by what we’ve seen thus far in his stunning career, he won’t be relinquishing number one spot any time soon.
