Jon Jones has reacted to a former UFC star talking up his pound-for-pound credentials.
The greatest fighter in MMA history has recently been usurped as the best active UFC champion.
Islam Makhachev has held the pound-for-pound top spot for much of his historic lightweight title run.
Jon Jones‘ apparent reluctance to unify the heavyweight division in a fight with interim champion Tom Aspinall has led to widespread ducking allegations and caused harm to his claim that he is still the best fighter on Dana White‘s roster.
- READ MORE: Jon Jones offered astronomical pay for Francis Ngannou fight in PFL as Tom Aspinall talks continue
Jon Jones humbled by former fighter’s praise
On Thursday, Jones shared a video of former UFC star David Loiseau on his Instagram story.
It showed the 23-11 MMA veteran talking about the current pound-for-pound best UFC fighter.
‘The Crow’ issued a passionate defense of Jones amid claims he’s avoiding a scrap with Aspinall.
“Jon Jones. Jon ‘Bones’ Jones. He’s the number one guy, who moved up from light heavyweight to heavyweight, won the belt,” Loiseau said.
“Now there’s people talking like, ‘Oh, he’s ducking Tom Aspinall’. Jon Jones is behaving the way he should be behaving. Like a king! Looking down on these peasants that want title shots.
“Jon Jones does what he wants, he’s not ducking nobody. He’s better than Tom Aspinall at boxing, wrestling, Jiu Jitsu, striking, knees, kicks, whatever. They play ping pong, Jon Jones is gonna win. They play dominoes, Jon Jones is gonna win. If they play Uno, who’s gonna win? Jon Jones!
“Dana White is wrong, Jon Jones is not number one. He’s number one, two, three, four, and five!”
Jones reacted by saying: “Humbled by your compliment and love your energy as always. Stay you.”
Tom Aspinall claims Jon Jones is ‘conning the public’
Aspinall made his feelings about Jones clear by pulling out a rubber duck at UFC London.
On Tuesday, Logan Paul released a podcast with Aspinall, who accused Jones of ‘conning the public’ amid protracted negotiations for their unification clash, which Dana White claims is ‘done’ but not done enough to officially announce.
“Jon is conning the public,” he said. “Listen, I’m not disputing that he’s an amazing fighter.
“I think the fact that he didn’t want to fight [Francis] Ngannou for three years, and now he doesn’t want to fight me over a year, and he just the way he manipulates the media and the public is super smart. I don’t want to take anything away from him.
“But do I think he’s scared to take the tough fights at this stage in his career? Absolutely. I can [understand it], I respect it. But if you’re going to ask me the straight-up question, ‘Is Jon Jones afraid to fight me?’ The honest answer would be ‘Yes’.”