1 week Ago By Tyler Fell
This upcoming weekend at UFC 309, the man who is pretty much unanimously considered the greatest MMA fighter of all time , Jon Jones , returns to the Octagon for the first time in 20 months to take on the greatest heavyweight of all time , Stipe Miocic , in a super-fight which is also Jones’ first heavyweight title defence. ‘ Bones ’ will look to add yet another legendary name to his already stacked resume at UFC 309, but even if he loses legitimately for the very first time, his legacy is already set in stone and that is because of his longevity and the countless number of iconic names he has defeated throughout his career. Ahead of his highly anticipated return at Madison Square Garden this upcoming weekend, GIVEMESPORT has ranked Jones’ top five wins inside the UFC Octagon.
Jon Jones' professional MMA record (as of 14/11/24) 29 fights 27 wins 1 loss By knockout 10 0 By submission 7 0 By decision 10 0 By disqualification 0 1 No contests 1 UFC 309 fight prediction for Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic, from UFC star Paddy Pimblett. 5 Alexander Gustafsson - UFC 165 Jon Jones has two victories over Alexander Gustafsson on his MMA record. One came via TKO and the other came via decision.
However, due to how deep 'Bones' had to dig, his close decision victory over the Swede at UFC 165 is arguably the more impressive of the two. Prior to UFC 165, Jones, who was still just 26 years old at the time, had not been taken into deep waters before and was walking through opponents such as Chael Sonnen , Vitor Belfort , and Rashad Evans with ease. Gustafsson, due to his similar size and reach to Jones, was able to give him problems he had never experienced in his career before and that resulted in a very scrappy back-and-forth fight which was awarded the 2013 Fight of the Year and still to this day is considered one of the greatest fights in UFC history.
4 Lyoto Machida - UFC 140 When you think of the most brutal and terrifying finishes in combat sports history, you think of KOs. However, at UFC 140, Jones produced one of the most brutal finishes ever when he submitted Brazilian legend, Lyoto Machida , with a guillotine choke which left 'The Dragon' flat on his face and unconscious on the Octagon canvas. The fight only lasted just over nine minutes, but in the first round, Machida had his fair share of success on the feet, which would have surprised Jones, as at that point, he would have felt untouchable due to him being on a streak of finishing five fights in a row, but as soon as 'Bones' started really putting the pressure on the Brazilian, he managed to get fully in control of the fight.
Towards the end of the fourth round, Jones dropped Machida and latched up a guillotine choke against the cage, which put his lights out in brutal fashion. 3 Mauricio Rua - UFC 128 Out of all of Jones' incredible achievements and records he has collected throughout his time fighting in the UFC, arguably the most impressive of them all is the fact that he still remains the youngest champion in the company's history. 'Bones' won UFC gold for the very first time by defeating Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua at the age of just 23 years old.
What makes this victory even more impressive for Jones is the circumstances of how this opportunity came about. Just five weeks before defeating 'Shogun', Jones fought and defeated Ryan Bader and was actually told by Joe Rogan in his post-fight interview that he would be fighting for the title at UFC 128, filling in for his then friend and training partner, Rashad Evans, who had to withdraw from his title shot due to injury. Jones completely dominated Rua and the Brazilian eventually got crumbled with a nasty body shot and knee to the head mid-way through the third round, which signalled the end of the fight.
2 Ciryl Gane - UFC 285 In 2015, when the light heavyweight division was completely empty of contenders to face Jones due to him already holding wins over them, talk among fans started about 'Bones' potentially making the move up to heavyweight to challenge Fabricio Werdum . Jones opted against moving up and instead waited almost a decade later to finally make the move up in weight. At UFC 285, Jones made his heavyweight debut against French top contender, Ciryl Gane , and completely dominated him to finally become a two-weight world champion for the very first time.
The Frenchman, Gane, was a betting favourite coming into the fight and many fighters and fans were siding with him. However, they were all proved wrong when Jones took him down with ease and finished him with a sneaky guillotine choke in just over two minutes. 1 Daniel Cormier - UFC 182 The build-up to UFC 182 was one of the most brutal, personal, and disrespectful fight builds in combat sports history.
Jones and Daniel Cormier had no prior beef before being booked to face each other for the UFC light heavyweight title at UFC 182, but the build-up to the fight involved insults towards family members, spitting at each other, as well as a very famous brawl between the two during a face-off. In both MMA and boxing, when a fight build has been so aggressive and personal, the actual fight itself tends to be somewhat anti-climatic, however, Jones vs Cormier absolutely delivered and not only was the highest level of MMA on show, a gritty brawl it was also. During the fight, Jones shockingly took Cormier down five times, which was a surprise to everyone as 'DC' had some of the best wrestling credentials the UFC had ever seen, and he also landed the better strikes in a lot of close exchanges.
It was Jones' success in the dirty boxing and grappling which saw him retain his UFC light heavyweight title but, more importantly for himself, get one up on his greatest rival..
