Sometime around the two-year mark of Jon Jones’ initial light heavyweight title reign, when he was bulldozing practically every former champion of the previous few years, it sure looked like it would be fun to see what this mids-20s wunderkind could do in a second weight class.
How would this guy do against the likes of Cain Velasquez? Against Junior dos Santos? Imagine if Fedor Emelianenko finally made his way into the octagon to face him?
It was not to be. Jones had other plans; those plans subsequently got derailed by his own demons and disastrous decisions.
Yet, through it all, he kept winning, all the way through the end of his impressive championship reigns. (Note the plural, and recall the demons and decisions.)
Three years after laying one crown to the side, Jones donned a new one. The now-35-year-old claimed the UFC heavyweight belt that was set aside by lineal champion Francis Ngannou leaving to explore free agency.
Nothing too surprising about the way Jones (27-1, 17 finishes) swallowed up Ciryl Gane barely two minutes into his heavyweight run. Fans who watched his UFC journey from the start remember a young man who savaged Vladimir Matyushenko with elbows on the ground, ran through champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in New Jersey and tapped out ex-champs Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Lyoto Machida and Vitor Belfort.
Snatching the neck of Gane (11-2, eight finishes) and securing a tap from the wrestling-deficient Frenchmen was a throwback for the former amateur wrestling who creatively cut down contenders for years at 205 pounds.
Jones took three years off — a long gap in competition than any previously imposed by the athletic commissions or United States Anti-Doping Agency ever imposed upon him — while he added bulk to his more spindly 6-foot-4 frame. He weighed in at 248 pounds on Friday. His last official fight-night weight from December 2018, per data released by the California State Athletic Commission, was 222.5.
A solid 25.5 additional pounds didn’t seem to slow him down in the limited time Jones and Gane spent toe to toe. He looked fuller upstairs — still lacking meat on his notoriously-thin calves — but it’s hard to say whether the added mass was the difference between a dominant win and a potential loss. A massive wrestling edge at heavyweight can make all the difference, size be damned.
Could 2013 Jon Jones have beaten dos Santos? Easy to imagine scenarios in which he would.
Emelianenko, in the back end of his career? Hardly a doubt.
Velasquez, an all-go All-American wrestler, would have been fascinating,
None of those men would have been as big as Gane, who came in at a fit 247.5.
Even Stipe Miocic, the former two-time champion who has been promoted to face the new champion in July, has competed as low as the 233 on fight night, per CSAC data.
Does size really matter? Did it?
It might have mattered against Ngannou, the man who set down his title to leave the UFC as a free agent to start the year. Ngannou, the lineal heavyweight champion, crept up near the 265-pound heavyweight limit as a true and massive big man with rare power in his hands for an MMA striker.
Two years ago, when Ngannou first won the crown by flattening Miocic, it looked as if Jones was on deck. Clearly, it was not to be. Jones opted to set his heavyweight debut once the champion set aside his title. Ngannou didn’t compete again for 10 months, when he wrestled his way to a decision over Gane.
Never say never in MMA, but if Ngannou succeeds in scoring a major payday in a boxing crossover or lands with an MMA organization with which he feels happier, don’t be surprised if Ngannou-Jones goes down as an all-time missed opportunity. Forget the idea of reunifying the lineal and UFC titles, at least for a while.
As for that UFC prize, hard to expect Jones enters his first (or next few) title defenses as a mere -175 favorite. The air of invincibility has returned for Jones, and he looks ready to make good on the lengthy run of destruction in a new weight class so many anticipated a decade ago.