True.
I meant Jones wouldn't mind seeing Gus derailed though, in regards to his comments.
Well yeah, of course, why else would he try and play matchmaker and have potentially his two toughest tests, Gus and DC, fight in order to eliminate one of them? He was hoping DC could do the job and tried to get them to fight each other twice (once before Gus fought Manuwa and then once after). Nobody really wants to have a very tough fight possibly again if they can help it. Unless they just really want the challenge that bad and few fighters actually do nowadays. It's more about the $ and fame today and less about their pride than it used to be imo (at least it seems this way).
To be honest, I was very surprised recently when someone commented in a thread that Gus has only one top 10 win, against a declining Shogun. I want Gus to take the belt, but come on, people have to look at this shit from Bones perspective too. That was before Gus looked great against Manuwa, who, as it turns out, is ranked (oddly). So I can see the case for a shot and I want to see it. But, I get where Jon is coming from.
He was supposed to fight Lil Nog (ranked #10 at that time) and that didn't happen, which was the second time now that Lil Nog pulled out against Gus. Gus bit the bait with Jones suggesting that he and DC fight, he said yes, but DC didn't want to fight him in Europe (which was already being planned for Gus' next fight location). We ended up with Jimi Manuwa (was ranked #11/fringe Top 10) instead. Manuwa is one of those guys that are better than their actual ranking suggests. I think on any given day that he could beat a handful of the Top 10 LHW's, or at the very least, be competitive against them. Match him up against a guy that won't grapplefuck him all night and he'll likely shine.
It is true that Shogun is Gus' only Top 10 LHW win but Manuwa, again, was ranked #11 when they fought and the difference between being #11, #8 or #9 isn't exactly huge. When Gus fought Thiago Silva he was no longer ranked in the LHW Top 10 anymore but previously he was, up until he submitted a non-human urine sample after beating Vera and got suspended for suspected PED use for a full year. He was dropped off the Top 10 lists due to that inactivity as a result of the suspension (where it took 15 1/2 months before he came back and fought Gus).
Thiago lost his return fight to Gus but then went on to beat 3 in a row - subbing Stanislav Nedkov (which got overturned to a No Contest since he pissed positive for weed), brutally KO'd Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante (former SF LHW champion), and then UD'd Matt Hamill before getting into his own legal trouble again. One could easily argue that he was still a Top 10 LHW even for the year that he was out on suspension. And thus, Gus actually could've beaten 2 or 3 rightful Top 10 LHW's (Shogun, Thiago Silva and Manuwa) if you still believe that Silva was inside the Top 10 and Manuwa being a fringe Top 10 is right there too. Skill-wise all 3 guys imo are Top 10'ish. Even after Thiago lost to Gus, and after being out for 15 1/2 months, he still only dropped to #17 in the LHW rankings (since he was probably ranked around #15 or so when they did fight).