After the retirement of Khabib Nurmagomedov, many fans started calling him the GOAT. And that has started a never-ending debate in the MMA world. Should Khabib Nurmagomedov be ranked over Jon Jones in the GOAT list?
The voice behind the desk of the UFC event, Joe Rogan gives his verdict on the debate in the recent episode of the JRE podcast. Rogan explained that though Khabib had a flawless career it is hard to match the accomplishments of Jon Jones.
Joe Rogan also compared the career trajectory of both the UFC champion. He recalled the title reign of Jon Jones in the light heavyweight division in the early stage of Jones’ career and called it as flawless as Khabib’s UFC career. He stated:
“I think that is the argument. Who is the GOAT? If you look at Jon Jones’ early career, he wins the title in 2011. From then on has fought more fights as championship fights than he has other fights. SO he is the most accomplished for sure. Wins the title, the youngest guys to win a UFC title. Beats Shogun Rua and then the way he dominated all these other fighters up until you get to Alexander Gustafsson, you can make the argument he had a similar career. Jon did not lose any round. He was smashing people. The Gustafsson fight, then you have to say how much slack you give him for not training. Because it was a really close fight. He did not f***g train. Then goes on a tear. Look at the way he beat Daniel Cormier. Took him down. Who the fuck takes Daniel Cormier down? You look at what Jon has done then you will have to take into account the things that did not go well. We have not seen it with Khabib yet.”
Is Jon Jones the greatest of all time?
The GOAT debate is flawed, to begin with as there are no particular set of criteria that are taken into consideration to decide who is the greatest. Is it the most dominant UFC fighter ever? Is it the fighter with most wins or most title defenses? Is it the fighter who has beaten a tougher level of competition?
If we consider the overall accomplishments as the standard to decide who is the greatest then it has to be GSP or Jon Jones. Khabib Nurmagomedov is unbeaten in his career but he does not have a rich resume as GSP or Jon Jones.
