At 37 years old, the consensus greatest of all time has hung up the gloves.
There has certainly been a lot of drama and controversy throughout Jon Jones’ career but when it comes to what he’s accomplished inside the Octagon, his run has been unmatched.
Dana White announced that Jones has retired during the post-fight press conference at UFC Baku where the UFC CEO stated that they had a phone call with ‘Bones’.
With the heavyweight division now free to continue with the new undisputed champion Tom Aspinall hoping to remain active, it’s time to look back at why many consider Jones to be the GOAT.
While it is hard to pick just five standout victories from his 28 pro wins, these are the victories that show ‘Bones’ at his very best.
- READ MORE: ‘Is he scared?’… Daniel Cormier calls Jon Jones a quitter for retiring to avoid Tom Aspinall fight
5. Lyoto Machida – UFC 140
In his second defense of the light heavyweight title, Jon Jones faced Brazilian striking specialist, Lyoto Machida in the main event of UFC 140 in December of 2011.
There were a lot of questions regarding how the young champion would deal with the creative and unorthodox approach of ‘The Dragon’.
The first round added to this as Machida found some success before Jones was able to flip the script in the second with one of the most violent submission finishes of all time.
After choking the challenger out in a standing guillotine, Jones released his grip as an unconscious Machida fell to the floor.
‘Bones’, in ruthless fashion, walked away from his fallen opponent as fans got to see the nasty side of the light heavyweight champion.
4. Ciryl Gane – UFC 285
This may be a controversial one for its placement, but here us out.
There were, and still are, some big questions regarding Ciryl Gane’s grappling, and they were certainly exposed in this fight but heading into the matchup, not many predicted that Jon Jones would make this fight look easy.
His run at light heavyweight before stepping away for three years was less than stellar, and after all that time away, who knew how Jones would perform as a heavyweight.
The fact of the matter is this fight didn’t end up answering some of those questions as ‘Bones’ was able to secure the first takedown he attempted and quickly lock up a guillotine choke to end years of anticipation in just over two minutes.
Jones didn’t just ace his heavyweight debut, he led to fans questioning whether a former interim champion was ever that good in the first place.
3. Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua – UFC 128
A lot has changed in the time between Jon Jones winning his first UFC title and retiring on June 21 but one fact remains the same, he’s still the youngest UFC champion in history.
The 23-year-old made a one-month turnaround following his win over Ryan Bader and he didn’t just beat the champion to mark his arrival, Jones dominated a legend of the sport in Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua before stopping him in the third round.
A combination of the accomplishment itself and the manner in which he went about it makes Jones’ first ever UFC title fight one of his finest victories.
2. Alexander Gustafsson – UFC 165
There are a whole host of Jon Jones title defenses, including his second fight with Alexander Gustafsson, that you could put on this list because he was so dominant.
However, Jones’ rally in the championship rounds to snatch victory from Gustafsson in one of the greatest UFC title fights of all time might be the true reflection of how great ‘Bones’ was.
He certainly wasn’t dominant but in this fight, the champion showed that even when he met another elite fighter who was firing on all cylinders, he could dig deep to defend his crown.
There are many examples of fights where he barely took damage but how good Gustafsson was on this night, and the fact that Jones still came out on top, makes this even more impressive than a one-sided win.
1. Daniel Cormier – UFC 182
There’s an argument to be made that Jon Jones vs Daniel Cormier isn’t just the best UFC rivalry of all time, it’s the highest level fight that has ever taken place inside the Octagon.
‘DC’ was the perfect opponent for ‘Bones’ in so many ways and yet, in the end, the defending champion ended up winning four of the five rounds on all three scorecards.
Jones outclassed his rival as he made the case for being the most well-rounded fighter in MMA history, outstriking Cormier and taking him down.
After handing Cormier his first loss, the consensus greatest of all time remarked that his opponent was “only human”, before apologizing for being “classless” due to his dislike of his challenger.