When it comes to his accomplishments inside the Octagon, no one can match the career of Jon Jones.
Jones became the promotion’s youngest ever champion at UFC 128 in 2011 before going on to produce one of the most impressive title reigns of all time.
For all of his remarkable achievements, ‘Bones’ has been hit with several setbacks that do factor into his legacy even if he’s considered by many to be the greatest of all time.
The ongoing saga between him and Tom Aspinall has created a lot of frustration with some fans calling for Jones to be stripped of the heavyweight title.
Dana White has been very vocal in the past about having one of the few marks against Jones struck from the record, though this is yet to happen.
Jon Jones sees two sides to the one loss on his record which was caused by a disqualification
In December of 2009, Jon Jones stepped inside the Octagon and for the first and only time, he didn’t get his hand raised.
In his fourth UFC fight, where he faced off with Matt Hamill, the bout ended in the first round after ‘Bones’ was disqualified for landing illegal elbows.
The 12-6 elbow, which is when a fighter brings their elbow straight up before bringing it straight back down again (with 12-6 referencing a clock face), was finally made legal last year after years of debate around this particular strike.
In an appearance on the DeepCut podcast, Jones stated that while he’s in favor of the rule change, he’s not sure whether that means his one defeat should be overturned.
He can understand why Dana White would want this to happen but he also understands that the result was a legitimate disqualification at the time, regardless of whether the rule is still in play today.
“The promoter in me says that that 1 should be removed from my record, that way, I could be truly marketed as an undefeated fighter. But the athlete in me knows that rules are rules, and at the time when I was disqualified, 12-6 elbows were illegal. So I broke the rule, and I paid the cost by having a loss. It just is what it is.”
Matt Hamill would rather move on from talking about his win over Jon Jones
Having met him inside the Octagon back in 2009, Matt Hamill is still the only man to hold a win over Jon Jones all these years later.
During an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show earlier this year, the former fighter spoke about how he would like to move on from the outcome of this fight following the legalization of the 12-6 elbow.
“We still have unfinished business, you know, but Jon Jones wants to overturn the one loss. I don’t think it’s going to happen because [of] all the past.
“So, it doesn’t really affect me but the way Jon Jones mentions my name again and again for the last 12 years, I’m like come on, let’s move on but everybody goes, ‘Hamill, you beat Jon Jones, he lost to you’. I’m like okay, thank you, but I’m not the kind of person to tell them that I beat Jon Jones. It just is what it is, there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Hamill, who was the first deaf fighter to compete inside the Octagon, recently revealed that with the help of a new hearing aid, he was able to hear for the first time in his life.