The Greatest Mixed Martial Artist of All TimeAnd how Jon Jones has cemented his legacy as the “GOAT” of MMA

By Joshua Curtis

The greatest of all time: A title that would make any craftsman blush when being referred to in relation to their craft. It’s a title more prestigious than “King” or “champion”. Every so often the world is blessed by individuals who have the genetic and mental gifts required to accomplish the unaccomplished and raise the bar of excellence higher than ever before. Throughout the course of history we have seen only the most coveted of talents receive this anointment. Names such as Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali, Tiger Woods and former UFC middleweight champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva come to mind. They have all been unanimously chosen by their peers, analysts and fans as the best at their respective art forms. To some, it may seem impossible for the accolades and accomplishments of the greats to ever be surpassed. However, at approximately 10:30 P.M Pacific Standard Time on Saturday, January the 3rd, the year 2015 in the beginning stages of its infancy; a new era has taken hold of the Mixed Martial Arts world. Jon Jones, at age 27 has already cemented himself as the Greatest Mixed Martial Artist of All Time.

In my opinion, a statement such as this should not be taken lightly. Like any common theory, it should be evaluated and undisputedly proven before releasing it to the world, as fact. So let’s do it. Let’s gather all of the possible fighters that could be considered the Greatest of All Time, or the “GOAT”. From where I sit, I can only see three names that could conceivably fit the mold. Those names are Anderson Silva, George St. Pierre and Jon Jones. Surely the three of them as a team could bring about world peace, end hunger, poverty and locate the Holy Grail, but that is a discussion for a different time. For right now, I am going to outline all of the reasons why Jon Jones has surpassed Anderson Silva and Georges St. Pierre as the “GOAT”.

Just a short time ago, the debate was between Anderson Silva and George St Pierre for who represents the pinnacle of the sport. To this day, they share the record for the longest consecutive streak of title defenses, with ten each. That is insane! Ten of the toughest foes in each of their weight divisions stood before them with blood in their eyes and froth at their mouths, attempting to take from them what they have slaved their entire lives for…their championship belts. Ten times, each of them emerged victorious and have become legends to be permanently written into the history books. They could be considered modern day Achilles and Hector of Troy. The only hitch in the road is that Hector’s demise was Achilles, and Achilles’ demise was his heel.

Let us, for the sake of analogies refer to Georges “Rush” St. Pierre (27 wins-2 losses) as Hector of Troy. Hector of Troy was the greatest fighter for Troy in the Trojan War, and a beloved hero. The same can be said for St. Pierre. He was the biggest Pay-Per-View draw in UFC history, and is one of the most likeable characters in all of sports. For years Georges dominated his opponents using his imposing athletic and wrestling abilities to time their striking patterns, close the distance for the takedown, and keep them on the ground. Georges is perhaps the most gifted athlete to ever grace the octagon and undoubtedly the most gifted at implementing a game plan to neutralize his opponents’ strengths. Many a time have I sat for a full five round, twenty-five minute fight where Georges took his opponents down and remained in a dominant position until the end of the fifth round. In fact, of his fourteen total Welterweight title fights, he rode his opponents like a Mary Go Round to a decision victory in eight of them. Sounds like a pretty good career, right? However in this three man “GOAT” race, I give Georges St. Pierre the bronze medal, third place. Throughout his career, he has “officially” lost two championship fights towards the beginning of his journey in the UFC, to Matt Hughes and Matt Serra. I say “officially” because contrary to the opinions of most, I included, in his most recent fight in November of 2013 the judges awarded him a split decision win over Johnny Hendricks, to retain his title for the tenth time. The majority of the MMA community disagrees with the judges’ decisions and believe that Hendricks should have been crowned the champion on that night.

But, what’s done is done and the decision is irreversible. Georges St. Pierre retired immediately after that fight and has since not returned. In my opinion, losing three championship fights and lacking the ability to consistently finish your opponent is too tall of a speedbump in the road to be ignored in crowing the greatest ever.

Sorry Georges. On the bright side, being considered as one of the three greatest fighters to ever live is something that almost no one can claim. In fact, only two others can! Also, to be mentioned in the same sentence as Hector of Troy is a compliment to anyone. Bon Voyage, my friend!

To complete our analogy, we will refer to Anderson “The Spider” Silva (33-6) as Achilles. Achilles is considered the greatest warrior in all of Greek Mythology. He is said to be the most feared, and dark warrior that ever existed. He was impervious to damage in his entire body, except for his heel, hence the term the “Achilles Heel”. Much like Achilles, Anderson Silva seemed invincible from the moment he first set foot in UFC on June 28th, 2006 when he unleashed one of the most brutal and efficient flurries of strikes that rendered his opponent, Chris Leben, unconscious. But time would tell that Anderson Silva too, has an Achilles Heel.

Throughout his career he compiled a UFC record tying 10 consecutive Middleweight title defenses. Not only did he win these fights, but he did so in devastating fashion. Of his 33 career wins, Silva has 22 victories by way of knocking his opponents out, or using his black belt level Brazilian Ju-Jitsu to submit them. He is without question the most skilled striker to ever step into the octagon. Watching Anderson use his strikes, his paintbrushes and his opponents, his canvases; I would often find myself in awe. The fluidity of his movements and his ability to use angles to create just enough space to move out of the way of danger while throwing devastating blows to his opponents remain more vivid works of art in my memory than Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic “Mona Lisa” painting. Until recently, Anderson Silva sat on the highest of Mixed Martial Arts thrones. He was the “GOAT”. Cue Chael Sonnen and Chris Weidman. Both men are American wrestlers who exposed the Achilles Heel of Anderson…his takedown and wrestling defenses. Between the two of them, they spent seven rounds on top of Silva, inflicting devastating punishment. The craftiness of Silva allowed him to escape the jaws of defeat against Chael Sonnen, but there was no such luck against Chris Weidman. Now, with 2 recent championship losses to the same man, Chris Weidman, Silva is no longer the best in the Middleweight division much less the entirety of Mixed Martial Art’s history. His refusal to evolve as a fighter, may have directly led to his demise. Don’t believe me? “The Spider” himself gave the following critique on him and his fellow countrymen by saying in an interview with MMAJunkie.com, that "It’s natural. Brazilians forgot some things to focus more on other things. We forgot the evolution. It’s important. I speak for myself. In my last two fights, I should have evolved more, but I didn’t follow this evolution." As history has proven, survival depends on the ability to evolve and adapt. Anderson Silva has paid the ultimate price for being content with his skillset. It cost him his World Championship and has also earned him second place on the all-time great podium.

Now that we have discussed why the other candidates have fallen short of the ultimate title in sports, let us get down to the nitti gritty. I will now present my case for Jon Jones surpassing Anderson Silva to become the most transcendent Mixed Martial Artist of all time.

Where to begin? There are so many elements of Jon “Bones” Jones’ (20 wins-1 loss) game that have yielded him success in every single professional fight that he has ever been in. He has never been defeated. You might be asking yourself “how is he undefeated with one loss on his record?” That loss took place on the night of December 5th, 2009 where Jon was scheduled to fight Matt Hamill. In the first round, Matt Hamill was thoroughly being outclassed. He was battered on the feet and then taken down. Trying to finish the fight, Jones made a costly mistake by hitting Matt with an illegal “12-6 elbow”. It’s a strike that is banned from the UFC because it causes excessive damage to those who are unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end. In a flash, the referee broke up the fight and Jon Jones was declared the loser by way of round one disqualification. A costly error to his professional win-loss record indeed, but to this day no man has truly defeated Jon Jones. As I’ve mentioned twice, in order to achieve “GOAT” status in any sport, you need to become the right package of skill, physicality and mental substance.

To begin my argument, let’s analyze the physical advantages of Jon Jones. He fights in the light heavyweight division, weighing in at 205 lbs. In a division where the average amount of reach that fighters possess is 76.23 inches, Jon Jones Boasts an astounding 84.5 inches of reach. On average that is more than eight inches of space that Jon can cleverly use to stay out of the reach of his opponents, while still being able to strike them. Also, having long and lanky limbs have served Jon well in his ground game. The Martial Art of Brazilian Ju-Jitsu’s objective is

to use timing and leverage to apply joint locks and chokeholds until your opponent is rendered unconscious, or until they submit. Jon’s extra-long limbs allow him to sneak into certain positions and submissions at angles that his opponents cannot. Do you think that it’s safe to say that the length of Jon Jones has been a major catalyst in his success? I do.

When a human is born, we are a blank canvas. We are raw and primal, but we are born with the ability to develop, learn, grow and evolve into adults capable of independent survival. Over time and through experiences we turn our canvas into a radiant and sophisticated painting. The same kind of evolution is necessary for Mixed Martial Artists to become and remain successful. Let’s refer to the demise of Anderson Silva. He became content with his repertoire of skills. He stopped growing. Then he met a man whose strength was also Silva’s weakness, and was defeated. This will never be the story of Jon Jones. With every fight, he adds a new move to his bag of tricks that his opponents are not prepared to defend, which makes him unpredictable. All of this is beside the fact that Jon has absolutely no weakness. He will out strike you. He will stuff your takedowns. He will take you down and he will submit you or finish you with ground and pound if he so chooses. No game plan exists to defeat Jon Jones and he has not yet entered his prime. He only gets better from here.

Unfortunately for the masses, physical attributes and technical skill alone are not enough to earn you the title of “The Greatest of All Time”. How many times have we seen the best physical specimens and most skilled talents fade from our memories and from the plane of professional competition because they weren’t focused, or because they didn’t have the drive and desire to become the best? The answer is: so often that it is commonplace. But every so often an individual approaches a sport with enough grit, determination and passion, that they are able to “will” themselves to greatness. It’s like a sixth sense that allows one to self-catapult into another dimension that we mere mortals will never fully understand. I can only think of a few individuals who possess it: Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Jon Jones. In life, letting your ego run wild may not be the best of ideas. In Mixed Martial Arts, it seems to be a necessity. You need to believe that you are by far the baddest man on the planet, and that your skills are so far superior to those of your opponents. In a sport where one simple absent minded movement can ruin a legacy, you cannot allow a single iota of doubt inhabit your body or you will lose. But trust me; you will never need to sit Jones down for this pep talk. He is one of the more cocky people I have had the pleasure of watching. So much so that he has become an extremely polarizing figure in the sports community, and is beginning to embrace his role as a villain. On the official UFC website, the first thing that you see under Jon Jones’ fighter profile is a quote from Jon, saying “Fighting me is bad for your career. It’s going to be bad for your image.” Enough said.

Let’s talk about the Champion’s spirit that inhabits Jon’s body. If you have ever trained any facet of Mixed Martial Arts, or any sport for that matter, you are aware of the countless opportunities that materialize for you to quit. At every turn of adversity you could give up. “Nope, it’s not for me. I’ll do something else” you could tell yourself. If you tell me that professional athletes’ jobs are easy, I will have a bone to pick with you, but that’s a conversation for a different time. The point is, the level of mental toughness needed to be a mere participant of this sport is something that most don’t have, much less the perseverance to become a champion. In a championship fight in the UFC, there are five rounds, each of which are five minutes long. Most fighters that are forced to perform in the fourth and fifth rounds are depleted of energy, and become docile. Their goal has shifted from winning the fight to finding relief of pain and fatigue. It’s in these rounds that Jon Jones musters up the energy and “Will” to dominate. Of his four championship fights that have extended into the fourth and fifth rounds, Jon has proven that he has absolutely no quit in him. It doesn’t stop there. The extent of the toughness of this champion’s spirit extends further. Envision yourself fighting a skilled fighter. Now envision yourself creating a strategy to beat them. Like most of us, you would probably study their fighting style and attack their weaknesses in order to give yourself the highest chance at winning, right? That is what sets Jon Jones apart from the pack. He employs a different tactic. He believes that if you can successfully attack an opponent’s strengths, the process of psychological and physical deterioration of your opponent is much quicker and more effective. Essentially that means that he beats world class opponents at what they are best at. You’re a striker? Ok, Ill out strike you. You’re a wrestler? Okay, Ill out wrestle you. You’re a Ju-Jitsu specialist? Cool, I’ll submit you. We have never before seen a man pull this off, much less attempt it. And it’s not as if Jon is fighting men with mediocre talent. During his eight Light Heavyweight title defenses, he has beaten five former UFC Champions, and most recently an Olympic wrestling medalist, and former Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion, in Daniel Cormier. He is also fighting in the toughest era in MMA history. It’s a time where every fighter is becoming well versed in all five of the main disciplines used in MMA. Up until just a few years ago, most fighters would focus on one or two Martial Arts instead of becoming well rounded. Thus MMA was watered down, comparatively.

The next chapter in Jon Jones’ career is on the horizon, and I for one cannot wait to see how it plays out. But of the chapters that do exist, enough has been observed and proven to say that at the young age of 27, Jon Jones’ accomplishments have triumphed over those of Georges “Rush” St. Pierre and Anderson “The Spider” Silva. He is The Greatest of All Time.