If HW is so easy compared to the lighter divisions, why did it take Jon Jones 10 years to move up?

[Romulas]

He's not going to fight Aspinall.

I wouldn't either because all of the mma fans that dislike him will always want him to fight someone else until he loses.

 

[skylolow]

The reality is Jon went to HW more so on sick of weight cutting and living that kind of lifestyle at his age in life with everything he accomplished. To boot he can be a double champ.

 

[cburm]

Alex is bigger than Jon Jones and he fights 185 and 205 and still not a hw he's an even bigger pussy

 

[djacobox372]

Jones could barely beat DC when he was weight drained, I think that gave him pause from moving up.

 

[KungFuCow]

Every fight professionally before?

I couldn't transition from 185 to 205 at 6'3" 215lbs because I couldn't get large enough to compete with guys that cut from 230 and walk around even heavier.

Going from goat LHW to world champion HW is an amazing accomplishment for anyone.

Yea, popping for peds, hiding under the cage when the testing people show up and fighting a hand picked HW to get the title is something to really be proud of. Ive said this before and Ill say it again. Jon Jones has a knack for catching people on the way down. Its not like fighting him gives you career altering trauma like say fighting Justin Gaethje and look at how all those people that fought him fared afterwards. Reyes lost his next 3. Gustafsson lost 6 of his next 9. Santos has won 1 fight out of his last 8. Catching them on the way down. Thats really what Jon excels at.

 

[Romulas]

Yea, popping for peds, hiding under the cage when the testing people show up and fighting a hand picked HW to get the title is something to really be proud of. Ive said this before and Ill say it again. Jon Jones has a knack for catching people on the way down.

Although I respect your join date, I do not agree with your position.

Jon Jones is the best man at hand to hand combat that has ever set foot on this planet. I hated on the guy for years for everything you and others have mentioned but at the end of the day nobody has a better example.

If not Jon Jones then who?

 

[HHJ]

Cos he absolutley SUCKS thats why

 

[Lawrence]

Everyone knows Jon is the LHW GOAT regardless. There’s no ifs &s or buts about it. That said, what’s up with all this talk about him dominating HW either now or a few years after he won the 205lbs title??

If Jon really thought he’d walk through the HW division, why didn’t he do so 10ish years ago then? https://www.mmafighting.com/2012/10...finitely-eyeing-late-2013-move-to-heavyweight

I find it hard to believe that Jon would’ve been as successful at HW back then as there were a bunch of guys either in their primes (Cain, JDS, Werdum, Bigfoot Silva right before the TRT ban & Mark Hunt who was going into his second prime post-Pride) or leaving their primes but not completely washed like Overeem (who was getting off his diet & no longer Ubereem), Barnett, Mir, Arlovski. Then you had the lower top-10 to 15 ranked guys like Roy Nelson, Travis Browne, Stefan Struve, Matt Mitrione & past prime Gabe Gonzaga & Big Nog. Many of these guys, mind you, have/had one-punch KO power (something that makes the division extremely tough to be dominant in).

It's tough to see how he would’ve steamrolled those guys like he did all the 205 legends. Especially with Werdum & Josh Barnett as they’re tall/lanky HW grapplers who could threaten Jon with subs left, right & center (a style of fighter Jon’s never faced) + the added KO power of being HWs & that’s a bad night for Jon (I'd favor Barnett heavily).

That’s why so many fans think Tom Aspinall is a terrible matchup for Jon (a natural HW who’s as tall or taller than Jon/similar frame, is a grappler & has one-punch KO power; he’s analogous to Frank Mir style-wise) with Blaydes being a huge threat too. Styles make fights in the end & there have been plenty of guys at HW who have similar frames to Jon who style-wise would’ve been bad matchups.

Bottom line, everyone knows Jon is the 205lbs GOAT period. It’s not the fact that “Aspinall, Blaydes, Sergie, etc. is the boogeyman to beat Jon”, who fucking cares!? He's the GOAT LHW. It’s the simple fact that the HW division is a whole different animal compared to the lighter-weight classes. If HW was so damn easy, you’d have these middleweights, 205lbs guys & so on moving up but they don’t often do so. Why? Cuz it’s much harder to be dominant at HW compared to the other weight classes cuz all it takes is that one-punch & that’s a wrap. It’s the premier division for a reason.

I think it's less than meets the eye.

He hesitated moving up because he did not want to do the work.

During the first 2/3 of his title run Jon was focused and prolific. But there were legends at 205 for him to clean out and so he took that task in hand.

Once it was done, he was famous and damn wealthy.........

Next comes the Hagler quote about silk sheets.

 

[IsNormal]

I find it hard to believe that Jon would’ve been as successful at HW back then as there were a bunch of guys either in their primes (Cain, JDS, Werdum, Bigfoot Silva right before the TRT ban & Mark Hunt who was going into his second prime post-Pride)

I don't think people said "HW is so damn easy" at that time

If HW was so damn easy, you’d have these middleweights, 205lbs guys & so on moving up

Even if HW was objectively worse (like - let's say they made all current HWs wear an eye-patch)
Do you really think MWs would flock to HW?
I think it's still such a massive weight gap most wouldn't go there

(PS: yes, I know, quite a few fighters have MWs have gone to HW in the past)

 

[JKS]

Jones could barely beat DC when he was weight drained, I think that gave him pause from moving up.

Barely?? I think it was pretty convincing.