Is this the Jon Jones we would have seen at HW had he moved up in his 20s?

[Söze Aldo]

He looked like a bloated mess in his first HW fight vs Gane, looked in better condition against Stipe but you could still see he was wearing his age. Deliberately putting on 10s of pounds in your mid 30s is never ideal. What if he had moved up during his physical peak?

 

[Typrune Goatley]

The heavyweight division was much much better around the time of Jon's physical peak.

Imagine if he had to fight guys like Overeem, Ngannou, Werdum, Junior Dos Santos, Stipe his in prime form. Fighting DC at heavyweight would also be much different than at 205. Jones never seemed to want to fight DC at heavyweight.

Fighting those guys would be much more difficult than a non grappling Cyril Gane or a dinosaur version of Music.

 

[HHJ]

He moved up now for a reason

He is stammering like Merab about fighting Tom for a reason.

 

[MEAN357]

Mid 20s pico pulse HW Jones GOAT confirmed

 

[TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle]

Of course not. The guy is pushing 40.

Would have been a much better Jon moving up 10 years ago, then again it was a much stronger division back then too.

 

[mmacrisis]

I think he still would have done amazing at that time. His skill is unmatched

 

[OldBoy91]

Would have been a much better Jon moving up in his mid to late 20s. The 37 year old version we saw against grandpa Stippy looked slow, less athletic and timid at times. His fight IQ is still elite but physically he's clearly declining.

However, he would have been moving into a much deeper HW division. Cain, JDS, Werdum, (coming up on prime) Stipe, Reem, Barnett, Mir.

I don't think many others would have given Jones too many problems, but there were 5 solid guys who could have given him issues.

These days there's only Aspinall. Ngannou could have been a problem too but Jon tactically waited for him to be out of the picture. There's a reason he's avoiding Aspinall like the plague. He's the one guy from todays division that could have been champ even when contending against some of those all time great HWs.

 

[cmw43]

I don't think he would have made it through many fights looking like that with USADA on the case.

 

[BigTruck]

Looks like Krazy horse

 

[TheBulge]

It wasn't worth it because even though he would have done well, he would take a lot of damage against those All Time Great heavyweights of that time and it would have shortened his career and he would miss out on a lot of money and legacy also, because he would cut short his GOAT LhW legacy.

I mention this because this is what smart fighters who care about their future actually think about. Keyboard warriors just think "dont be a pussy bro" and then abandon the fighter after he got the shit beaten out of him and lost broken and a shell.

 

[Thepaintbucket]

Best version of Jon was around pre Gus or maybe DC1, depending how you look at things. He was a lot more wild and risk taking prior to Gus. Much more calculating post Gus in his fights with Glover/DC.

He would've had to face Cain or Werdum, very interesting match up. Most likely wouldn't have gone on the ground with either imo. Cain would be pushing the pace for sure. Jon most likely has a much mature BJJ game now

 

[Söze Aldo]

I don't think he would have made it through many fights looking like that with USADA on the case.

They notoriously bent the rules, changed venues etc. for Jones even post-USADA.

 

[JKS]

He would have been better physically as he's clearly slowed down. At the same time, the competition back then was stronger at HW

 

[Señor Dudu Bird]

Why move up when he was comfortably making weight? Especially when he was young and the division was very dangerous.

 

[BowserJr]

The heavyweight division was much much better around the time of Jon's physical peak.

Imagine if he had to fight guys like Overeem, Ngannou, Werdum, Junior Dos Santos, Stipe his in prime form. Fighting DC at heavyweight would also be much different than at 205. Jones never seemed to want to fight DC at heavyweight.

Fighting those guys would be much more difficult than a non grappling Cyril Gane or a dinosaur version of Music.

Been saying exactly this for years.

Jon would win many of those and also rack up losses. Had he come out with a good record in that HW division he'd be undisputed GOAT.

Unfortunately he tried to go the easier/ Mayweather route of just claiming it and choosing the most favorable match ups only.

Styles make fights and those are all challenging styles when it's guys his size

 

[Captain Herb]

He looked like a bloated mess in his first HW fight vs Gane, looked in better condition against Stipe but you could still see he was wearing his age. Deliberately putting on 10s of pounds in your mid 30s is never ideal. What if he had moved up during his physical peak?

That's when he was suspended for hit and run on the pregnant lady, he was hanging out with serious lifters and most likely doing enough Turinabol to pulse for the rest of his life.

 

[blaseblase]

The heavyweight division was much much better around the time of Jon's physical peak.

Imagine if he had to fight guys like Overeem, Ngannou, Werdum, Junior Dos Santos, Stipe his in prime form. Fighting DC at heavyweight would also be much different than at 205. Jones never seemed to want to fight DC at heavyweight.

Fighting those guys would be much more difficult than a non grappling Cyril Gane or a dinosaur version of Music.

He's also noticeably declined in his last few fights though. Have to take that into account if we're doing the same for his potential opponents. I think he would have sussed out JDS's bad reaction to pressure if he had fought him after the Cain fights. Prime Stipe and Ngannou would have been interesting matchups. But I've never bought the premise that a fight with DC would have gone any differently with DC just being fatter.

 

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

50 pound bag of salt in a swimming pool Jones would be GOAT GOAT

 

[nonoob]

I think he still would have done amazing at that time. His skill is unmatched

Pico said he was going to HW division IIRC in 2013, didn't he?

Guess ALL HWs were "annoying" to him then - just like Tom annoys him now.

​

 

[AndrewGolota48]

Would have been a much better Jon moving up in his mid to late 20s. The 37 year old version we saw against grandpa Stippy looked slow, less athletic and timid at times. His fight IQ is still elite but physically he's clearly declining.

However, he would have been moving into a much deeper HW division. Cain, JDS, Werdum, (coming up on prime) Stipe, Reem, Barnett, Mir.

I don't think many others would have given Jones too many problems, but there were 5 solid guys who could have given him issues.

These days there's only Aspinall. Ngannou could have been a problem too but Jon tactically waited for him to be out of the picture. There's a reason he's avoiding Aspinall like the plague. He's the one guy from todays division that could have been champ even when contending against some of those all time great HWs.

I was the biggest Overeem fanboy out there but he wouldn't have had shit for Jones unless perhaps he was on full blown PED mode like the Brock fight or K-1, but the Overeem after that would have very little chance.

Prime JDS and Cain definitely would've been massive threats, would've been epic to see those fights take place back then. Prime Stipe as well.

I don't see Barnett or Mir posing any major threat to Jones, honestly. Werdum is right on the borderline...his striking did get pretty good for a while, and he has that ground game... definitely a great fight as well.