Was Jones in the same position as Khabib and Islam?

[HHJ]

That just gave them something to latch onto imo, the butthurt all began with him destroying a legend of the sport haha

Probably,but at this time,I didnt care about him destroying shogun. I knew it would happen. It was the other stuff buildin up lol.

 

[MEAN357]

Probably,but at this time,I didnt care about him destroying shogun. I knew it would happen. It was the other stuff buildin up lol.

Fair enough, never cared about any of it dude was a monster. Shit human and great fighter usually go hand in hand lol

 

[maximus__]

Early on? Jones was super dominant all the way up to his title victory against Shogun but he didn't have too many ranked wins, did he? I recall him having ONE top 5 (10?) victory, Ryan Bader, before he fought Shogun.
What was the chatter back then? Did fans think Jones was unproven against the top fighters, as was the case with Islam and Khabib?
I didn't lurk too many forums back then but I remember fans saying that Shogun would cripple his chicken legs, lmao.
Did Jones have a rise similar to Khabib and Islam? Who else comes to mind?

Jones was a short notice injury replacement for Shogun.

Khabib had a title fight made for him with number 11 in his division and Islam fought all his ranked fights on short notice as well.

Khabib and Islam won when it mattered, but they were nothing compared to Jones pre PED issues.

 

[chiefwiggum]

Jones was in the ufc in less than a year of trying mma and won a title 3 years into the sport

neither of thoseguys belong in the same sentence. As jones. Nobody really does.

just compare what they accomplished at 30 when khabib retired and islAm got a title. and it’s a huge discrepancy. Let alone going back any further and shontheyre fighting at what stages of their career.

 

[Starman]

Jones got dominated by Matt Hamill then DQ’d himself after he couldn’t take it anymore.

 

[AfroBanana]

Jones and Islam had one top ten ranked win before fighting for the title (Bader and Hooker, respectively).

Khabib had three top ten ranked wins before fighting for the interim title (RDA, Johnson, and Barboza).

For reference, here are the other Lightweight and Light Heavyweight UFC champions' number of top ten ranked wins in their respective divisions before winning the title:

(5) Shogun
(5) Glover
(3) Chuck
(2) Rampage
(2) Machida
(1) Jones
(1) Rashad
(1) Tito
(1) Cormier
(1) Vitor
(1) Griffin
(1) Jan
(1) Jiri
(0) Couture
(0) Frank Shamrock

AVG: 1.7

Jones had a below average number of top ten ranked wins before fighting for the title (but he was also a replacement for an injured Rashad).

(5) Eddie
(3) Khabib
(3) Penn
(2) Benson
(2) Oliveira
(1) Pettis
(1) Islam
(1) Edgar
(1) Pulver
(0) RDA
(0) Sherk
(0) McGregor

AVG: 1.6

Khabib had an above average / Islam had a below average number of top ten ranked wins before fighting for the title.

In all fairness each had a unique situation.

Khabib missed weight in his 4th fight. That set him back.

-derailed his title chances

After he beat RDA he pulled out of fights with Cerrone twice and Tony then was gone for 2 full years. This is when he started to get a bad reputation for reliability “pulling out”.

-derailed his chances

Then he beat Horcher in a CW fight after 2 years away and was going to fight Eddie if Conor didn’t negotiate.

Fought Johnson and got a title fight

Then he nearly died making the scale for a title fight.

Then fought Barbosa.

Then became champ against unranked late replacement.

Then he basically only fought 1 time every 12-13 months and creates interim two title situations while having contenders knock each other off in 2/3 of his defenses.

This is why I like active fighting champions and hope Islam will be one.

Jon and Islam didn’t piss away many opportunities to the same degree, that’s why Khabib had those ranked fights.

So just to be clear. Jon in his 8th UFC fight was a title fight replacement.

Khabib missed weight in his 4th fight, pulled out of a bunch of fights, missed 2 full years only had 6 LW fights and 2 CW and had a title fight in his 9th fight but couldn’t make the scales.

All that said, if Khabib made weight he would have had 2 ranked wins and a title fight 9 fights in even with all that bullshit (weight missing, pulling out, being out a long time) he still had a title shot only 1 fight later than Jon.

 

[jk7707]

Jones was in the ufc in less than a year of trying mma and won a title 3 years into the sport

neither of thoseguys belong in the same sentence. As jones. Nobody really does.

just compare what they accomplished at 30 when khabib retired and islAm got a title. and it’s a huge discrepancy. Let alone going back any further and shontheyre fighting at what stages of their career.

Lesnar won a title in about a year and a half in the UFC. Know what him and Jones had in common? They were both roiding cheaters.

 

[ermac88]

Lesnar won a title in about a year and a half in the UFC. Know what him and Jones had in common? They were both roiding cheaters.

Hell Yeah

It's not like other HW champs like Mir, Reem, Silvia, Werdum or Barnet were taking roids!!

Definitely not the guys from Pride!

 

[kellier]

Yep. As I said, that division was the most competitive division at the time, with the title changing hands quite regularly. He literally beat 50% of all UFC LHW champions in history (other than himself) at one point. He didn't fight or beat Shamrock, Tito, Randy, Chuck, or Forrest. Now you can add Jan and Jiri. Jiri was the one that made it less than 50%.

He beat Rampage, Rashad, Shogun, Machida, DC, and Glover.

Fuckin crazy and untouchable stat.

Belfort too

 

[PunchesOnLunches]

So much dishonesty, revisionist slander and/or misunderstanding based via omission of context going on and I didn't even go through every page of the thread. Not even gonna jump into any of that.

To answer the original poster's question. Imo yes. The best and most decorated parts of Jones' resume started with his winning the title onwards. Before that at first glance he had the track record of a very promising up and coming star in the sport, like someone else said just by the eye test you knew this young guy was eventually going to fight for a title and have a great shot at winning it.

 

[Deleted member 579182]

Here's some context of what people were saying leading up to the Shogun fight.

 

[HHJ]

Here's some context of what people were saying leading up to the Shogun fight.

I think this was pretty much the end of BSL. When shogun lost.

 

[Dionysian]

I realized his elite status when he steamrolled Vlad. That was some fight-night equivalent sort of card if I remember right. Interestingly, steamrolling Vlad was the same way I realized the level Gus was at.

 

[true_fan]

You can't compare an eye poking drug cheater to real athletes brother

 

[HHJ]

I realized his elite status when he steamrolled Vlad. That was some fight-night equivalent sort of card if I remember right. Interestingly, steamrolling Vlad was the same way I realized the level Gus was at.

I was shocked when I saw Gus vs Shogun. I couldnt believe LHW's had gotten so big and could move so fast.

 

[HHJ]

You can't compare an eye poking drug cheater to real athletes brother

Yeah but its not what this thread is about. Its about how they were viewed at certain point in their career. It was apparent pretty quickly from as soon as he was in UFC Jones was pre packaged with all the tools needed. He just had to calm down and know when and where to throw the right technique. He was all over the place experimenting. Khabib wasnt at AKA and wasnt even sparring when he first joined UFC. When he joined AKA,Javier had told Abdulmanap,sparring could not be avoided at this level. Khabib was a work in progress. His grappling skills were elite,but his entries,striking,and mixing it up into a mma game was something that came together over several fights. It was the RDA fight that made everyone take a huge notice,but he got injured and sat out for 2 yrs after that. The whole time people thinking,if he can come back,this guy could be champ...esp since RDA wound up going on to win the belt.

The situations were really very different.

 

[sonhow]

There were people aggressively picking both men. Shogun was sherdogs darling that year. For a good reason though. I can recall dozens of war wagons crashing that night.

 

[theleerygoose]

Yes. Jones was one of the most hyped fighters ever and more than half of Sherdog thought he didn’t deserve a title shot and Shogun was going to kick his legs off. Shows you how much Sherdog knows. Many thought it was crazy Jones was the Vegas favorite.

To be fair many recognized his talent and there were a lot of heated debates.

 

[TerrorTimmy]

I mean,if you saw Jones vs Bonnar,you knew this was a future champion on our hands. All he needed to learn was how to put all the tools together

The Bader fight sold me. Both undefeated, both good wrestlers. It was a good fight on paper, but it was not a close fight in the end. Jones destroyed Bader. After that it was clear he would be champion

 

[Fioretti]

Belfort too

Can't believe I missed that. Good call! So he's still at 50%, not including himself. Yet, most would argue he's beat himself too. Lol