The Jon Jones opponents were past their prime/too small for him myth

[HHJ]

Jones was lucky he fought Shogun when he was coming off a knee surgery. We all saw how that went against Forrest.

I'm not saying Jones can't beat a healthy Shogun but it's obvious that the healthy Shogun and post knee surgery Shogun are two completely different fighters.

I'll go as far as healthy Shogun is a much better fighters than Dominick Reyes who gave Jones a very hard fight.

It sucks we never got to see that Shogun fight Jones and saw the Shogun from the first Forrest and second Coleman fight instead.

Sure Shogun had inconsistent performance due to injuries and hard training. Also the Jones that fought Reyes probably was declining

 

[Ludwig von Mises]

Sure Shogun had inconsistent performance due to injuries and hard training. Also the Jones that fought Reyes probably was declining

It's difficult to really measure where Jones is. He's certainly not peaking anymore. He's not the guy he was from 2011-2015.

With that said even a peaking, juiced up Jones had his hands full with Gus and went to the hospital after the fight and many think he lost.

And even today's older, past peak Jones made quick work of Gane. So with all these variables it's hard to measure where he is.

I do think peak Shogun was better than Reyes and possibly better than Gus. Sucks we couldn't see that version of Shogun fight Jones.

 

[GreatSaintGuillotine]

I think walk-around weight is by far the most useless piece of information fight fans cling to. It has no relevance to cage weight. Lots of people just walk around heavy because they don't diet between fights. I wish cage weights were recorded and publicized more commonly to prevent debates like this.

I think Jon fought incredibly skilled fighter. The best available to him. No question. HOWEVER, I think it is fair to acknowledge that Jon in terms of weight (to a lesser degree) and reach (to a ridiculous degree) benefited from being at 205 instead of 265. Jon was certainly bigger than some of his former MW competitors. I don't think it effects his legacy tho. They were the best available to him because 205 has always been pretty shallow unfortunately. Jon cleared out the majority of major threats at the time.

I think the most fair criticism of Jon come from his repeat cheating and inactivity through multiple points in his career. The rest is pretty superficial. There are plenty of much more valid criticisms to make against Jonny.

 

[HHJ]

It's difficult to really measure where Jones is. He's certainly not peaking anymore. He's not the guy he was from 2011-2015.

With that said even a peaking, juiced up Jones had his hands full with Gus and went to the hospital after the fight and many think he lost.

And even today's older, past peak Jones made quick work of Gane. So with all these variables it's hard to measure where he is.

I do think peak Shogun was better than Reyes and possibly better than Gus. Sucks we couldn't see that version of Shogun fight Jones.

I think Gus success was in part to jones not being able to physically dominate him the same way he could others

 

[GluttonforPunishment]

welp given you can't prove that and it's highly unlikely this is considered fighter bashing

It's Jones. So it's okay.

 

[Ludwig von Mises]

I think Gus success was in part to jones not being able to physically dominate him the same way he could others

I think what made Gus success was his footwork and his reach. Similar to what made Reyes successful. Gus was a very sneaky fighter. He knew when to brawl, he knew when to run and he knew when to change levels and get sneaky takedowns. This + his good fundamental boxing made it hard for Jones to address everything.

 

[BowserJr]

Let me start of by saying Jon Jones started his carreer at light heavyweight, walking around at 219 lbs. He was a realitvely tall, skinny lean lightheavyweight. All his opponents he fought near the start of his career and the begging of his title reign looked larger and thicker than he did.

Jon Jones 23 walk around weight 215
vs
Ryan Bader 6'2" 27 years old, walk around weight at 230 lbs, started his career at light heavyweight, went on to win both the bellator lightheavyweight and heavyweight titles

Jon Jones 23 walk around weight 215
vs
Shogun 6'1" 29 years old, walk around weight 228 lbs, started his career at light heavyweight, was the champion before losing to Jon Jones

Jon Jones 24 walk around weight 215
vs
Rampage Jackson 6'1" 32 years old walked around at 230 lbs, started his career at light heavyweight, former lightheavyweight champion comming off his last reign being 2 years ago

Jon Jones 24 walk around weight 219
vs
Lyoto Machida 6'0" 33 years old, walked around weight 210 lbs, started his career at heavyweight, former lightheavyweight champion with his last reign being a year ago

Jon Jones 24 walk around weight 219
vs
Rashad Evans 5'11" 32 years old, walk around weight 230 lbs, started his career at heavyweight, fromer light heavyweight champion with his last reign being 3 years ago

Jon Jones 25 walk around weight 219
vs
Vitor Belfort 6' 34 years old, walk around weight 225 lbs, started his career at heavyweight, former lightheavyweight champion with his last reign being 5 years ago

Jon Jones 25 walk around weight 225
vs
Chael Sonnen 6'1" 35 years old, walk around weight 235 lbs, started his career at light heavyweight and drained himself to make middle weight

Jon Jones 26 walk around weight 219
vs
Alexander Gustafsson 6'5" 26 years old, walk around weight 230lbs, started his career at lightheavyweight

Jon Jones 26 walk around weight 225 lbs
vs
Glover Teixiera 6'1" 33 years old, walk around weight 225 lbs, started his career at lightheavyweight and was on a 20 fight win streak before losing to Jon Jones

Jon Jones 27 walk around weight 230 lbs
vs
Daniel Comrier 5'10" 35 years old, walk around weight 250 lbs, started his career at heavyweight, former strikeforce heavyweight champion, undefeated in mma and hadn't lost a round before losing to Jones

Jon Jones 28 walk around weight 230 lbs
vs
OSP 6'1" 30 years old, walk around weight 240 lbs, started his career at lightheavyweight

Jon Jones 30 walk around weight 230 lbs
vs
Daniel Cormier 38 years old, walk around weight 250 lbs, started his career at heavyweight former heavyweight and was at the time the reigning lightheavyweight title(lost durring the fight) had 3 defences before losing to Jones

Jon Jones 31 walk around weight 225 lbs
vs
Alexander Gustafsson 6'5" 31 years old, walk around weight 235 lbs, started his carreer at lightheavyweight later moved up to heavyweight

Jon Jones 31 walk around weight 235 lbs
vs
Anthony Smith 6'2" 33 years old, walk around weight 225 lbs, started his career at middle weight

Jon Jones 32 walk around weight 240 lbs
vs
Thiago Santos 6'0" 35 years old, walk around weight 225 lbs, started his career at middle weight

Jon Jones 32 walk around weight 235 lbs
vs
Dominick Reyes 6'4" 30 years old, walk around weight 225 lbs, started his carreer at lightheavyweight undefeated before losing to Jones

Jon Jones 35 walk around weight 247 lbs
vs
Cyril Gane 6'4" 33 years old, walk around weight 250 lbs, started his carreer at heavyweight

With the exception of machida and maybe thiago(who by all accounts was a huge middle weight to begin with, it seems all Jon Jones opponenets started their careers at either heavyweight or lightheavyweight, and the ones who foguth at middle weight actually had to drain themselves to make middleweight(see video of Sonnen durring weigh in with bisping) which is something Jon Jones has never had to do to fight at his natural weight class of light heavyweight.



As far as the age thing goes, it also doesn't seem like Jon Jones opponents were very old or past their primes. Most of them were in their early 30s or lates 20s and comming off title reigns, fantastic wins, or even win streaks, Jon Jones was only about 3 years into his mma career at the time too. He started training in 2008 and was champion by 2011 so he was a rookie dismantling veterans in their prime. Also many of the legends Jon Jones defeated fought 10 years after losing to Jon Jones.

You myth bust nothing while falling for the myth that weight = overall size... if that were the case Sean sherk wouldn't have looked small vs hughes or gsp

You also fall for the myth that age = prime when it's actually a combination of age, fights and wars.

You must think Aldo is still in his prime lol

 

[Cartiac]

Damn, my greatest takeaway from all these complete nonsense arguments is Sherdog posters are definitely well past their primes, these 7+ pages are very sad. Even most of the individual points are even complete nonsense, but trying to discredit Jon Jones by nitpicking the success of this guy or that guy (who all actually lost to Jones) is just insanity. People really should think twice about posting when the best they got to discredit Jon Jones is talking about the "success" of guys like Gus and Reyes because it is pretty sad when your definition of success is not losing to Jones as bad as others did especially referring to guys that otherwise accomplished nothing of major significance in the sport.

Jones is the youngest UFC Champ ever, has the most title fights, the most title fight wins, the most title defenses, the most wins over other UFC Champions, has never lost a title fight and has only 1 fight against an opponent over the age of 35 who was a UFC HW Champ that he had already beaten 3 years prior. Any nitpicking of the time this or that happened is meaningless in the face of that overwhelming long term official, indisputable record of success.

 

[CPH]

You lose all credibility when you point to Shogun's tiramisu weight as proof that Jones was the smaller guy and mention that Machida, Shad and Vitor started their careers at HW. I mean LOL

 

[Cartiac]

Sure Shogun had inconsistent performance due to injuries and hard training. Also the Jones that fought Reyes probably was declining

Haha, Inconsistent? So that's the word we are using now to describe fake ass "unbeatable" Pride fighters. Is that the word we are supposed to use to describe guys like Fedor and Gomi that also got consistently destroyed after losing the Yakuza advantage?

Shogun was unbeaten in Pride as MW, which apparently the "hardcores" here don't realize was the 205 division there. Shogun at the time Jon Jones completely dominated him in every way was absolutely not small, old, inexperienced, or worn out. He was widely expected to easily become UFC Champ in that fight against the extremely young, inexperienced, untested Jones.

This is obviously a rhetorical question but how do you determine which fighter gets the benefit of the "prime" excuse? Everyone here is dying to see Jones fight Aspinall, but why? Wouldn't Jones clearly get the "out of his prime" excuse making the outcome irrelevant even if he lost?

 

[orca]

They weren't out of prime, but light heavyweights were definitely smaller back then. Jones had a height and reach advantage over everyone he fought and when he faced a fighter his size in Gus he was a lot less dominant.

the bored version of jones
but they cant still beat him
jones literally almost killed gustafson

 

[orca]

Let me start of by saying Jon Jones started his carreer at light heavyweight, walking around at 219 lbs. He was a realitvely tall, skinny lean lightheavyweight. All his opponents he fought near the start of his career and the begging of his title reign looked larger and thicker than he did.

Jon Jones 23 walk around weight 215
vs
Ryan Bader 6'2" 27 years old, walk around weight at 230 lbs, started his career at light heavyweight, went on to win both the bellator lightheavyweight and heavyweight titles

Jon Jones 23 walk around weight 215
vs
Shogun 6'1" 29 years old, walk around weight 228 lbs, started his career at light heavyweight, was the champion before losing to Jon Jones

Jon Jones 24 walk around weight 215
vs
Rampage Jackson 6'1" 32 years old walked around at 230 lbs, started his career at light heavyweight, former lightheavyweight champion comming off his last reign being 2 years ago

Jon Jones 24 walk around weight 219
vs
Lyoto Machida 6'0" 33 years old, walked around weight 210 lbs, started his career at heavyweight, former lightheavyweight champion with his last reign being a year ago

Jon Jones 24 walk around weight 219
vs
Rashad Evans 5'11" 32 years old, walk around weight 230 lbs, started his career at heavyweight, fromer light heavyweight champion with his last reign being 3 years ago

Jon Jones 25 walk around weight 219
vs
Vitor Belfort 6' 34 years old, walk around weight 225 lbs, started his career at heavyweight, former lightheavyweight champion with his last reign being 5 years ago

Jon Jones 25 walk around weight 225
vs
Chael Sonnen 6'1" 35 years old, walk around weight 235 lbs, started his career at light heavyweight and drained himself to make middle weight

Jon Jones 26 walk around weight 219
vs
Alexander Gustafsson 6'5" 26 years old, walk around weight 230lbs, started his career at lightheavyweight

Jon Jones 26 walk around weight 225 lbs
vs
Glover Teixiera 6'1" 33 years old, walk around weight 225 lbs, started his career at lightheavyweight and was on a 20 fight win streak before losing to Jon Jones

Jon Jones 27 walk around weight 230 lbs
vs
Daniel Comrier 5'10" 35 years old, walk around weight 250 lbs, started his career at heavyweight, former strikeforce heavyweight champion, undefeated in mma and hadn't lost a round before losing to Jones

Jon Jones 28 walk around weight 230 lbs
vs
OSP 6'1" 30 years old, walk around weight 240 lbs, started his career at lightheavyweight

Jon Jones 30 walk around weight 230 lbs
vs
Daniel Cormier 38 years old, walk around weight 250 lbs, started his career at heavyweight former heavyweight and was at the time the reigning lightheavyweight title(lost durring the fight) had 3 defences before losing to Jones

Jon Jones 31 walk around weight 225 lbs
vs
Alexander Gustafsson 6'5" 31 years old, walk around weight 235 lbs, started his carreer at lightheavyweight later moved up to heavyweight

Jon Jones 31 walk around weight 235 lbs
vs
Anthony Smith 6'2" 33 years old, walk around weight 225 lbs, started his career at middle weight

Jon Jones 32 walk around weight 240 lbs
vs
Thiago Santos 6'0" 35 years old, walk around weight 225 lbs, started his career at middle weight

Jon Jones 32 walk around weight 235 lbs
vs
Dominick Reyes 6'4" 30 years old, walk around weight 225 lbs, started his carreer at lightheavyweight undefeated before losing to Jones

Jon Jones 35 walk around weight 247 lbs
vs
Cyril Gane 6'4" 33 years old, walk around weight 250 lbs, started his carreer at heavyweight

With the exception of machida and maybe thiago(who by all accounts was a huge middle weight to begin with, it seems all Jon Jones opponenets started their careers at either heavyweight or lightheavyweight, and the ones who foguth at middle weight actually had to drain themselves to make middleweight(see video of Sonnen durring weigh in with bisping) which is something Jon Jones has never had to do to fight at his natural weight class of light heavyweight.



As far as the age thing goes, it also doesn't seem like Jon Jones opponents were very old or past their primes. Most of them were in their early 30s or lates 20s and comming off title reigns, fantastic wins, or even win streaks, Jon Jones was only about 3 years into his mma career at the time too. He started training in 2008 and was champion by 2011 so he was a rookie dismantling veterans in their prime. Also many of the legends Jon Jones defeated fought 10 years after losing to Jon Jones.

ts telling us that jones is the best fighter
he literally fought fighters at any size and beat them all

LHW stats showed that 30 to 35 years old was the prime age of LHWS
also as ts is explaining

jones is the goat because hes really good at using his reach
and his body as a weapon

unlike others whos tall and lanky but lack the skills to use their body as a weapon

 

[Elvis.]

His run from 2010-2015 is insane, not just who he beat but how badly he beat most of them

 

[HHJ]

Haha, Inconsistent? So that's the word we are using now to describe fake ass "unbeatable" Pride fighters. Is that the word we are supposed to use to describe guys like Fedor and Gomi that also got consistently destroyed after losing the Yakuza advantage?

Shogun was unbeaten in Pride as MW, which apparently the "hardcores" here don't realize was the 205 division there. Shogun at the time Jon Jones completely dominated him in every way was absolutely not small, old, inexperienced, or worn out. He was widely expected to easily become UFC Champ in that fight against the extremely young, inexperienced, untested Jones.

This is obviously a rhetorical question but how do you determine which fighter gets the benefit of the "prime" excuse? Everyone here is dying to see Jones fight Aspinall, but why? Wouldn't Jones clearly get the "out of his prime" excuse making the outcome irrelevant even if he lost?

Yes that's the word i'm using bitch. Didn't read the rest. Pride never die. Saitama super arena all up in ya face.

 

[DFresh1]

Let me start of by saying Jon Jones started his carreer at light heavyweight, walking around at 219 lbs. He was a realitvely tall, skinny lean lightheavyweight. All his opponents he fought near the start of his career and the begging of his title reign looked larger and thicker than he did.

Jon Jones 23 walk around weight 215
vs
Ryan Bader 6'2" 27 years old, walk around weight at 230 lbs, started his career at light heavyweight, went on to win both the bellator lightheavyweight and heavyweight titles

Jon Jones 23 walk around weight 215
vs
Shogun 6'1" 29 years old, walk around weight 228 lbs, started his career at light heavyweight, was the champion before losing to Jon Jones

Jon Jones 24 walk around weight 215
vs
Rampage Jackson 6'1" 32 years old walked around at 230 lbs, started his career at light heavyweight, former lightheavyweight champion comming off his last reign being 2 years ago

Jon Jones 24 walk around weight 219
vs
Lyoto Machida 6'0" 33 years old, walked around weight 210 lbs, started his career at heavyweight, former lightheavyweight champion with his last reign being a year ago

Jon Jones 24 walk around weight 219
vs
Rashad Evans 5'11" 32 years old, walk around weight 230 lbs, started his career at heavyweight, fromer light heavyweight champion with his last reign being 3 years ago

Jon Jones 25 walk around weight 219
vs
Vitor Belfort 6' 34 years old, walk around weight 225 lbs, started his career at heavyweight, former lightheavyweight champion with his last reign being 5 years ago

Jon Jones 25 walk around weight 225
vs
Chael Sonnen 6'1" 35 years old, walk around weight 235 lbs, started his career at light heavyweight and drained himself to make middle weight

Jon Jones 26 walk around weight 219
vs
Alexander Gustafsson 6'5" 26 years old, walk around weight 230lbs, started his career at lightheavyweight

Jon Jones 26 walk around weight 225 lbs
vs
Glover Teixiera 6'1" 33 years old, walk around weight 225 lbs, started his career at lightheavyweight and was on a 20 fight win streak before losing to Jon Jones

Jon Jones 27 walk around weight 230 lbs
vs
Daniel Comrier 5'10" 35 years old, walk around weight 250 lbs, started his career at heavyweight, former strikeforce heavyweight champion, undefeated in mma and hadn't lost a round before losing to Jones

Jon Jones 28 walk around weight 230 lbs
vs
OSP 6'1" 30 years old, walk around weight 240 lbs, started his career at lightheavyweight

Jon Jones 30 walk around weight 230 lbs
vs
Daniel Cormier 38 years old, walk around weight 250 lbs, started his career at heavyweight former heavyweight and was at the time the reigning lightheavyweight title(lost durring the fight) had 3 defences before losing to Jones

Jon Jones 31 walk around weight 225 lbs
vs
Alexander Gustafsson 6'5" 31 years old, walk around weight 235 lbs, started his carreer at lightheavyweight later moved up to heavyweight

Jon Jones 31 walk around weight 235 lbs
vs
Anthony Smith 6'2" 33 years old, walk around weight 225 lbs, started his career at middle weight

Jon Jones 32 walk around weight 240 lbs
vs
Thiago Santos 6'0" 35 years old, walk around weight 225 lbs, started his career at middle weight

Jon Jones 32 walk around weight 235 lbs
vs
Dominick Reyes 6'4" 30 years old, walk around weight 225 lbs, started his carreer at lightheavyweight undefeated before losing to Jones

Jon Jones 35 walk around weight 247 lbs
vs
Cyril Gane 6'4" 33 years old, walk around weight 250 lbs, started his carreer at heavyweight

With the exception of machida and maybe thiago(who by all accounts was a huge middle weight to begin with, it seems all Jon Jones opponenets started their careers at either heavyweight or lightheavyweight, and the ones who foguth at middle weight actually had to drain themselves to make middleweight(see video of Sonnen durring weigh in with bisping) which is something Jon Jones has never had to do to fight at his natural weight class of light heavyweight.



As far as the age thing goes, it also doesn't seem like Jon Jones opponents were very old or past their primes. Most of them were in their early 30s or lates 20s and comming off title reigns, fantastic wins, or even win streaks, Jon Jones was only about 3 years into his mma career at the time too. He started training in 2008 and was champion by 2011 so he was a rookie dismantling veterans in their prime. Also many of the legends Jon Jones defeated fought 10 years after losing to Jon Jones.

Hmm... I think you love him...

 

[FlyingDeathKick]

He only weighed a few more lbs on fight night than guys like Costa do at 185. He was never too big for 205, he just had a stupidly long reach but so has many many other fighters in MMA. Not many guys that are able to take advantage of their crazy long reach like Jones does tho. I mean he takes advantage of it by eye poking when his opponents attempt to close the distance but still...

 

[Brendan The Hybrid Schaub]

Jon is the size of a modern day LHW while most of those guys were blown up middleweights, also just look at them next to jon, they were a couple inches shorter than listed. Jon is one of the best fighters ever but he benefited a ton from having a size advantage and fighting in a terrible division. Now he doesn't have a size advantage but fights in an even worse division

 

[lefthighkick01]

It's difficult to really measure where Jones is. He's certainly not peaking anymore. He's not the guy he was from 2011-2015.

With that said even a peaking, juiced up Jones had his hands full with Gus and went to the hospital after the fight and many think he lost.

And even today's older, past peak Jones made quick work of Gane. So with all these variables it's hard to measure where he is.

I do think peak Shogun was better than Reyes and possibly better than Gus. Sucks we couldn't see that version of Shogun fight Jones.

Yeah I also think shogun was always the better fighter, however Reyes imo will always do better against Jones due to Reyes having longer reach and height and being alot closer to Jones size.

And I believe it would be the same situation with Gus. the Shorter fighters just struggling to get inside of Jones due to his huge reach and very long legs.

 

[HavokHarmon]

Let me start of by saying Jon Jones started his carreer at light heavyweight, walking around at 219 lbs. He was a realitvely tall, skinny lean lightheavyweight. All his opponents he fought near the start of his career and the begging of his title reign looked larger and thicker than he did.

Jon Jones 23 walk around weight 215
vs
Ryan Bader 6'2" 27 years old, walk around weight at 230 lbs, started his career at light heavyweight, went on to win both the bellator lightheavyweight and heavyweight titles

Jon Jones 23 walk around weight 215
vs
Shogun 6'1" 29 years old, walk around weight 228 lbs, started his career at light heavyweight, was the champion before losing to Jon Jones

Jon Jones 24 walk around weight 215
vs
Rampage Jackson 6'1" 32 years old walked around at 230 lbs, started his career at light heavyweight, former lightheavyweight champion comming off his last reign being 2 years ago

Jon Jones 24 walk around weight 219
vs
Lyoto Machida 6'0" 33 years old, walked around weight 210 lbs, started his career at heavyweight, former lightheavyweight champion with his last reign being a year ago

Jon Jones 24 walk around weight 219
vs
Rashad Evans 5'11" 32 years old, walk around weight 230 lbs, started his career at heavyweight, fromer light heavyweight champion with his last reign being 3 years ago

Jon Jones 25 walk around weight 219
vs
Vitor Belfort 6' 34 years old, walk around weight 225 lbs, started his career at heavyweight, former lightheavyweight champion with his last reign being 5 years ago

Jon Jones 25 walk around weight 225
vs
Chael Sonnen 6'1" 35 years old, walk around weight 235 lbs, started his career at light heavyweight and drained himself to make middle weight

Jon Jones 26 walk around weight 219
vs
Alexander Gustafsson 6'5" 26 years old, walk around weight 230lbs, started his career at lightheavyweight

Jon Jones 26 walk around weight 225 lbs
vs
Glover Teixiera 6'1" 33 years old, walk around weight 225 lbs, started his career at lightheavyweight and was on a 20 fight win streak before losing to Jon Jones

Jon Jones 27 walk around weight 230 lbs
vs
Daniel Comrier 5'10" 35 years old, walk around weight 250 lbs, started his career at heavyweight, former strikeforce heavyweight champion, undefeated in mma and hadn't lost a round before losing to Jones

Jon Jones 28 walk around weight 230 lbs
vs
OSP 6'1" 30 years old, walk around weight 240 lbs, started his career at lightheavyweight

Jon Jones 30 walk around weight 230 lbs
vs
Daniel Cormier 38 years old, walk around weight 250 lbs, started his career at heavyweight former heavyweight and was at the time the reigning lightheavyweight title(lost durring the fight) had 3 defences before losing to Jones

Jon Jones 31 walk around weight 225 lbs
vs
Alexander Gustafsson 6'5" 31 years old, walk around weight 235 lbs, started his carreer at lightheavyweight later moved up to heavyweight

Jon Jones 31 walk around weight 235 lbs
vs
Anthony Smith 6'2" 33 years old, walk around weight 225 lbs, started his career at middle weight

Jon Jones 32 walk around weight 240 lbs
vs
Thiago Santos 6'0" 35 years old, walk around weight 225 lbs, started his career at middle weight

Jon Jones 32 walk around weight 235 lbs
vs
Dominick Reyes 6'4" 30 years old, walk around weight 225 lbs, started his carreer at lightheavyweight undefeated before losing to Jones

Jon Jones 35 walk around weight 247 lbs
vs
Cyril Gane 6'4" 33 years old, walk around weight 250 lbs, started his carreer at heavyweight

With the exception of machida and maybe thiago(who by all accounts was a huge middle weight to begin with, it seems all Jon Jones opponenets started their careers at either heavyweight or lightheavyweight, and the ones who foguth at middle weight actually had to drain themselves to make middleweight(see video of Sonnen durring weigh in with bisping) which is something Jon Jones has never had to do to fight at his natural weight class of light heavyweight.



As far as the age thing goes, it also doesn't seem like Jon Jones opponents were very old or past their primes. Most of them were in their early 30s or lates 20s and comming off title reigns, fantastic wins, or even win streaks, Jon Jones was only about 3 years into his mma career at the time too. He started training in 2008 and was champion by 2011 so he was a rookie dismantling veterans in their prime. Also many of the legends Jon Jones defeated fought 10 years after losing to Jon Jones.

All good points but unless I’m missing something here Belfort last title reign was 8 years prior to his 2012 fight with Jones when he beat Randy in 2004.