By Vengo Films – https://vimeo.com/147277972, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64840025
Jon Jones
More than three years have passed since Jon Jones last fought in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the most famous and largest mixed martial arts (MMA) organization. His light heavyweight title defense against Dominick Reyes took place in February 2020 and thus before the global corona measures. It has been a long time.
Next Saturday (local time), perhaps the best MMA athlete of all time will return to the octagonal cage in Las Vegas against Ciryl Gane. At stake is nothing less than the heavyweight crown. A few years earlier, in the summer of 2020, Jones had announced that he would give up the light heavyweight title and try his luck in a higher weight class in the future.
But it was obviously a long way to the upcoming debut in the heavyweight division. Again and again there were rumors about possible duels with Stipe Miocic or Francis Ngannou, both former champions. None of them came about. This was sometimes for financial reasons. Jones is also a rather complicated character and has had repeated problems with the law in the meantime. Because as talented as he is as an athlete, he is controversial away from the Octagon.
“The guy’s dealing with his demons, a lot of demons,” said UFC boss Dana White when Jones was arrested in September 2021 for a physical altercation with his fiancee. The 35-year-old was accused of assault and domestic violence, among other things. Shortly thereafter, Jones declared on Instagram that he would swear off alcohol forever. However, his long-standing training facility threw him out of their program.
Since making his UFC debut in 2008, Jones has always been good for scandal. In 2015, he caused a car accident and was convicted of hit and run. He then had to give up his light heavyweight title, followed by a suspension. However, it shouldn’t be the only time Jones was stripped of a title by the UFC. In 2016 he violated the doping guidelines and again lost his status as a champion. In 2017 the whole (mourning) game was repeated.
From a purely sporting point of view, no one has come close to him so far. Jones suffered the only loss of his career in 2009 against Matt Hamill only due to a highly controversial disqualification. In his last two fights, however, Jones was no longer dominant as usual. He narrowly won against both Thiago Santos and Reyes. According to his own statement, he simply lacked the necessary motivation. “The light heavyweight division was fun, but I wasn’t scared of my opponents anymore,” Jones says in one ESPN-Late 2020 article cited. The lack of urgency would have been evident in the fighting, Jones said self-critically.
This is now different in the heavyweight division. According to Jones, the fighters there are “pretty intimidating”. This also applies to the Frenchman Gane. With a weight of 112 kilograms and a height of 193 centimeters, the 32-year-old is a real colossus. Before his career in MMA, Gane remained undefeated in his favorite discipline, Thai boxing. In the UFC he lost only once in a total of twelve fights and had to admit defeat to ex-champion Ngannou. The Cameroonian, in turn, was forced to lose his heavyweight title after being unable to agree a new contract with the UFC.
Therefore, Jones now faces Gane and not Ngannou. Jones is considered a slight favorite and of course wants to claim his claim to be the best of all time. “I don’t want to have any more debates about this when my career is over,” he said. “I’m by far the best light heavyweight. And in my heart I feel that I am the greatest fighter in the history of this sport.«
