I don’t follow the ins-and-outs of MMA as much as I used to, but what the fuck is going on with the UFC’s matchmaking these days?
Conor is doing everything except fighting. He’s promoting movies, attending fights, pimping products and doing his usual Bilzerian bullshit… but why isn’t he actually fighting? What’s the legit reason? The guy is fit and healthy - and apparently eager to fight - so what’s going on?
Same deal with Jones. I know he was recently injured, but his inactivity is staggering when you consider his ability and reputation in the sport. He’s in the prime of his career and literally sitting around doing nothing. Two fights since 2020 for a 36 year old GOAT, with no legit reason to not be fighting.
It’s all made even weirder when you consider the UFC can’t assemble a killer card to save their life. Conor/Jones should be fighting at least twice per year. What’s actually stalling their fight careers?
When you have a Jones or a Conor as a draw, the rest needs to be an awful shit card so corporate breaks even. They’re such a big names there’s like only 1 or 2 UFC events in a year that can justify paying their purse and PPV points. Therefore, we get male dwarf fighting and women’s MMA bloating 90% of the cards.
Which is funny, because in the glory days of MMA, Dana always used this to highlight the difference between boxing and MMA.
If they can only pay to have a main headline fight - and everything else is shit - what’s the difference between the UFC and any standard boxing event these days?
And it is. It’s amazing. Competition and Jon Jones is like he goes up against somebody and in the moment draw from the spirit of competition to rise to just above who he’s fighting, but not more than that. As long as he has cardio, he’ll do fine. Against Gane it looked like he actually came prepared and to prove a point, because it was the challenge of the heavyweight division, but I think that’s the anomaly. Jon Jones drinks, does drugs, hides under the Octagon, crashes cars, but come fight time, Jon Jones wins. He himself even said he’d get blackout drunk leading up to a fight. LOL.
If I had to describe Jon Jones with one word, it would be: Survivalist.
The guy has an incredible survival instinct. He’ll do what it takes to win. His fight IQ is the best in the game, and he uses his massive size and reach better anyone in the history of martial arts.
I’ve described many times exactly how Jon Jones fights. No one has been able to overcome it yet. He could have beaten Gane even quicker if he had been fighting at his usual weight as a LHW (around 220, from what I know). What he gained in his stint as a bodybuilder was just blubber.
