We all know now that it's gonna be near impossible to be given a decision win over Jon, unless it's a dominant performance where you win all 5 rounds (pretty much impossible to do against Jon). To dethrone him, you're gonna have to finish him, something that nobody's ever really been close to doing. Who has the best chance of stopping Jon and taking his LHW crown?
Dominick Reyes
Thiago Santos
Corey Anderson
Jan Blachowicz
Volkan Oezdemir
Aleksander Rakic
Johnny Walker
It's a pretty uninspiring list. Reyes and Santos obviously fought him to close decisions, but I feel like Jon took their best shots and wasn't phased by them at all. Jon has historically looked dominant in his rematches as well, so it's difficult to imagine them getting the finish next time, particularly Santos who is 36 years old and coming off major knee surgery.
Corey Anderson has looked real good lately, but he's not really a finisher, save for his last fight against Walker and Jon won't make the same mistakes that Johnny Walker did. Jan Blach has KO power but he's a journeyman and he's in tough against Anderson who beat him pretty handily last time.
Rakic and Walker are both really good prospects who theoretically have the length and power to get it done. But as we saw in both of their last fights, they're still a long way from being legitimate threats.
Will anyone in this crop be able to get it done? I'm leaning towards no.... at least not until Jon is a few years older and deeper into his physical decline.