The Bottom Line: A Premature Coronation

Mixed martial arts promoters and media love to craft a grand narrative around a big fight, that the result of a given contest will settle some larger debate within the sport. The narrative that swirled around Jon Jones’ fight with Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 among UFC commentators and some outside media as well was that a victory by Jones would remove any doubt as to his status as MMA’s pound-for-pound Greatest of All Time. When Jones won, the UFC commentary team took turns proclaiming that now the argument was settled, and Jones is the GOAT.

It’s understandable why this happens. A big fight is all the more fun with special stakes. We’ve seen fighters win championships at multiple weight classes many times by now. Jones already had a strong claim to being the GOAT before the fight and didn’t need the win over Gane to demonstrate he’s in the top handful of claimants. Solidifying an impossible-to-deny claim to being No. 1 would be something even more special and different, were that claim to ring true. Of course, it shouldn’t ring true. Georges St. Pierre in particular remains a perfectly viable and reasonable alternative choice.

The idea that beating Gane would be the final deciding factor in differentiating the long and storied resumes of Jones and St. Pierre is on its face a rather silly claim. He isn’t among Jones’ five best opponents, nor would he be among St. Pierre’s top five (assuming of course that Gane were GSP’s size). The fight Saturday night was as much about Gane’s poor performance on the ground as Jones’ successful grappling. It was a quick fight but isn’t likely to be brought up early when remembering Jones’ most impactful victories.

So if Gane isn’t a singularly impressive name on a résumé to finally settle the GOAT debate, what of the symbolism of Jones winning a title in a second weight class? Certainly it’s a nice accomplishment, but St. Pierre of course did the exact same thing when he came out of retirement to defeat Michael Bisping for the UFC middleweight title, which doesn’t make for a particularly strong differentiator. That is not to mention Jones won a vacant title by beating a man who lost to the former champion.

This isn’t to say there’s anything wrong with claiming Jones as the GOAT. Few fighters have dominated a division for such an extended period as Jones did the prestigious light heavyweight division, and he did so with many varied tools. It’s just that St. Pierre did the same at welterweight. Jones has ostensibly no real losses but GSP has no unavenged losses. Jones has bigger names on his resume but St. Pierre fought more of his top opponents when they were at their absolute best, while Jones fought a number of his most impressive challengers when they were past their peaks. Jones has one more career win but he also had one more fight before reaching the UFC, and his pre-UFC competition was weaker than St. Pierre’s.

The question ultimately comes down to how someone feels about the way Jones bested Daniel Cormier, Rashad Evans, Lyoto Machida, Mauricio Rua and Quinton Jackson as compared to the way St. Pierre defeated Matt Hughes, B.J. Penn, Josh Koscheck, Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves. Perhaps that seems like an easy choice to some, but it seems like a very close and difficult to weigh question in my book.

The most important reason for holding off on considering this matter settled, however, is that Jones’ career continues on. Rightly or wrongly, fighters are judged by what happens at the tail ends of their careers. Losses in his mid-30s or later were among the factors held most against the GOAT claim of Fedor Emelianenko. St. Pierre got out before taking a string of losses at the end, something that has helped him over time compared to Anderson Silva, Fedor, Jose Aldo and others. Late-career losses negatively color perceptions of fighters’ careers not just because it makes them seem more human but because it accentuates weaknesses that were present earlier in careers but were dismissed at the time.

Jones’ foray into the heavyweight division is young. A win over a great champion like Stipe Miocic would be an impressive accolade to add to his résumé. Beating the perpetually underappreciated Curtis Blaydes at the peak of his powers might not stand out as much on paper but would be even more appreciated by some. A matchup with destroyer Sergei Pavlovich would make some concerned for Jones in a way they rarely have been. Jones has plenty of time to definitively cement his place in history. Saturday night wasn’t it, but in some ways that’s a positive for Jones rather than a negative.