In fact I’d say this only proves that point. Yes we saw how that fight ended up. We all knew it ahead of time too. Chael had nothing for Jon, especially on short notice when he hadn’t even been training to fight…but Jon had.
But Jon still didn’t have the mental fortitude to just do what everyone else knew he would when he should have. Not without half a year and a full training camp to build the confidence to fight that washed out Middleweight.
As far as fighters go, courage was not one of his main attributes. Which obviously came through in his fighting style as well (do I need to post all the poking and fleeing gifs again?).
At this point in his career it makes sense. There is always going to be “the next big thing”. Some people would claim that he would have been beaten by Frances if he never fought him. Or he would have been beaten by Gus if he didn’t rematch him. There is ALWAYS stuff like that. At this point in his career after going over a decade and double digit championship fight winning streak, it isn’t a horrible idea to think about legacy.
It speaks to his belief in his process. He believes that if he trains and gameplans the way he always does he will win. He doesn’t have confidence outside of his process. This has worked for him fairly well.
Jon Jones is thinking “how does this help my ‘brand’ outside of UFC?”. Outside of UFC, no one knows who Sergei is. The argument that no one knows Stipe could also be made but at least he’s a former UFC champ and that can be used to build a fight.
I’d love to see Jones lose to Sergei or anyone else, we all would. Just have to hope Stipe has enough left to do it. Would be nice if he fought once in the last 2 years so we could see what he has left but that didn’t happen. I still say we don’t know what Jones is made of at heavyweight. How’s his cardio? Can he take a punch from a bigger man? Does his wrestling mean anything against an actual MMA fighter who can wrestle? Not one of those questions was answered last time and they’re all very important questions
He beat the best HW in the UFC at the time. The fact that Jon literally walked through CG is a statement about how good he is. Frances eeked out a decision over CG. Jon smashed him. I agree with you that we don’t know much about Jon at HW but that is a statement about how much better he was than the best HW in the UFC.
If Jones or any Champion doesn’t want to fight the #1 Contender then they should just vacate the Belt
You can cherry pick for your own career or legacy on your own time but when you have the Belt you should fight the rightful Contender. That’s the whole point of it.
If it’s 1 thing the UFC could take from Boxing it’s fighting Mandatory Challengers or you get stripped
Otherwise when a Conor McGregor or dangerous Contender comes around then some Champs will take the money fight over sport. Or in Jones case he would fight a guy that hasn’t fought in 2 years, should be unranked due to being inactive and probably should retire, rather than fight a surging Contender who actually has the ranking and deserves the shot.
It’s a business. Contenders get hopped all the time if there is a money fight involved. As long as it is a business first and a sport second; this is going to happen.
I get that but the Champion shouldn’t get to pick and choose. I get that it’s a business but if that was the rule here then we would get only Conor LW Title fights until he retires because that’s what’s best for business. It’s a business but it’s also a sport.
Is the Stipe fight much better than Pavlovich, Business wise? He hasn’t been active and isn’t a talker. Only business reason it makes sense is if you want to keep Jones the champ for as long as possible, but from what Jon has been saying he might retire after this one anyway.
I understand what you are SAYING. I get the point. The hard facts of the situation is that it is a business first and a sport second. As long as that is the case, the “contender” thing is just window dressing. If it is convenient, it happens. If it is inconvenient, sometimes it happens sometimes it doesn’t. You have situations like Maia where they did everything they could to NOT let him fight for the title. It’s a business.
Stipe is the longest reigning HW champ in UFC history and long touted as the greatest HW of all time by the UFC hype machine. It is WAY bigger of a profile fight than Sergei “No-One-Knows-Ski”. Way.
Who is the better fighter? Sergei by far right now.
And I understand what you are saying too lol but it doesn’t make it right that a Champion can pick and choose his opponents while the #1 Contender never gets a shot. Yes it’s a business but there is a line to be drawn somewhere otherwise just put Jake Paul in an immediate title fight too.
I think Mandatory title challengers would help maintain the integrity of the sport (what little is left lol) but I get it that there are more factors in play like the bottom line of the business and a Champion who would rather do what is best for themselves.
I think they could market it either way. Recency bias works in Sergei’s favour and they can play a highlight reel of him KOing other contenders. They can also market the Stipe fight but Jon Jones is the real draw in the equation. I can’t see a big difference in numbers if it’s vs Stipe or Pav
You can justify or respect it all you want but as far as professional fighters go, he is certainly one of the less gutsy or courageous ones.
No surprise such policies are good for the record, it’s not exactly a stroke of genius or anything. Just a beneficial lack of the kind of guts that might get other fighters in trouble.