Issue 143
July 2016
The pound-for-pound king’s move to heavyweight could be a game-changing proposition
Gareth A Davies
TV analyst and MMA reporter for The Telegraph, UK, gets excited about Jon Jones’ heavy future
I seriously can’t wait for Jon Jones to get done at light heavyweight and then move on up against the biggest fighters on the planet. Saving grace for Jones, saving grace for the division. Double quick time, please, ‘Bones’.
Fight sports have never been a popularity contest, yet Jones could do with winning a pageant, or three. For all his drink-drive proclivities, Jones turns 29 in July, and the best two to three athletic years of MMA’s enigmatic pound-for-pound number-one have arrived.
There is a thrill at the thought of Jones moving up to challenge the best above 205lb. Moreover, the UFC heavyweight division is really missing an X-factor, and that could clearly be Jones. He would light up the division instantly.
It has been a division of slumbering giants with no clear dominant force. But throw Jones into the mix and it immediately gives the weight class an altogether different feel. Questions start to pop out at us. Can Jones hold his own against the giants? The matchups and the risks would be insane.
Just imagine. Jones could be set the task of slaying a line-up of contenders, or even, just as he did in defeating five former UFC light-heavyweight champions in a row in 2010-11 – Shogun, Rampage, Machida, Evans, Belfort – could UFC matchmaker Joe Silva set Jones the task of defeating five former UFC heavyweight champions in a row? Any from Mir, Barnett, dos Santos, Arlovski, Velazquez and Werdum.
Then there’s Hunt, Miocic, Rothwell... I’m starting to get excited now. Imagine Jones toying with the ‘Super Samoan’ as he readies his cocked, lights-out right hand. Jones circling. And you know he wants to fight most of these guys at their own game. It’s in his nature, as we know.
Wouldn’t you pay good money to see all of these fights? I certainly would.
The truth is that Jones is not guaranteed to beat any of them. But wouldn’t that be some run, some story, if he could move up and defeat the biggest fighters in the world? It’s a thrilling thought.
There are many reasons for Jones to ‘step up’: he has the biggest body type in the 205lb division, with that broad and rangy physique – allied to his diverse skills, timing, speed and movement. It gives him the basic capacity to hold his own.
But perhaps more importantly, there is also the sense that he could create a ‘new’ Jones, and by jingo does he need to reinvent himself. There is the feeling that at light heavyweight, little can be done to unhinge him. He is expected to win.
We’ve seen ‘Jones the favorite’. Let’s see ‘Jones the underdog’ at heavyweight. Many will tune in to see him get beaten or knocked out, but I guarantee you, if he sets a winning streak in the heavyweight division, the fans will turn to support him. Jones really could prove that he is the baddest man on planet MMA.
There exists, already, some heat between the New Yorker and Fabricio Werdum. Remember when Jones called out the Brazilian for a gym brawl with no time limits?
The UFC’s heavyweight division has been riddled with volatile reigns. No one has had more than two defenses. I’m backing Jones to be the first man to do so. He’s a big man, with big ambitions. He would be a drawing force and a catalyst for change, both in his career and in the heavyweight division itself.
There’s no doubt Jones’ image could do with a cleanse. But that starts in the Octagon. Doing what he does best. In his life, Jones must look before he leaps. But for ‘Bones the fighter’ it’s time to make the jump.
All-Natural
Two-division pioneer
Randy Couture is the only man to have won UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight titles.
