Jon Jones has been stripped! Good riddance!

The UFC Baku card just finished up, and during the post-fight press conference Dana White was unsurprisingly asked about Jon Jones and the situation at heavyweight. However, in this instance Dana didn't give a non-answer or talk about how he'll have news in a few weeks and said:

 "Jon Jones called us last night and retired. Jon Jones is officially retired, Tom Aspinall is the heavyweight champion of the UFC."

No big announcement, no teasing future news for international fight week, just nonchalantly dropping news that fans have been waiting to hear for a year. On one hand it would seem odd not to have a big announcement or promo package made for Jon's retirement or Tom's next fight, but in my opinion that's exactly what Jon deserves. After the absolute garbage he has pulled for over a year, he deserves to go out with zero fanfare other than the fanbase celebrating him finally going away. I knew after before he even beat Stipe that he was going to play around and delay making a decision to keep his belt even longer, and the UFC allowing him to do just that for over 7 months is a complete disgrace to the sport and the fans. 

Jon first mentioned moving up to heavyweight in 2013, and it took all the way until 2023 for it to finally happen. He beat Cyril Gane at UFC 285, and while I actually think he doesn't get enough credit for that win, that was basically all Jones did as champion for over 2 years. He pulled out of the Stipe fight when it was scheduled for UFC 295 which led to the interim title being made, ducked Tom Aspinall for an entire year leading up to UFC 309 where he fights a 42-year-old Stipe coming off of a 3-year layoff and a KO loss to another guy that he wouldn't fight, and played around for another 7 months before finally retiring and getting stripped. Jon was very close to becoming the longest reigning heavyweight champion in UFC, and thankfully he didn't get to pass that record, because his heavyweight title reign is easily the worst title reign in the division's history, and in my opinion the worst in the history of the UFC. 

So where does this leave Jon's legacy? As much as I do not like him, he is undeniably one of the best fighters the sport has seen and easily the best at 205. 14 title defenses on paper is impressive regardless of the quality of those wins. But really looking at his time in the sport paints a different picture. Much of his early reign as champion was spent beating former middleweights, but I personally don't think it's fair to hold that against him because that just was the division. It's not Jon's fault that 205 was full of former middleweights at the top. A close fight against Gustafsson, and 2 great wins over Cormier are the highlights of his run. However, Jon was on steroids for this entire run, and the last DC win was turned into a no contest because of it. While I think most fighters from that period were on steroids, no fighter has been a more prolific and discussed steroid cheat than Jones. 

He then beats Gustafsson again after the entire card got moved because of Jon's steroid use causing issues with the commission. Next, A dominant but unimpressive win over Anthony Smith where he could have lost the belt because of an illegal knee. Thiago Santos nearly beat him, and had he not blown his knee out in the first round who knows what would have happened in an already close fight. Lastly there is Reyes, who I and many other fans watched beat Jon Jones 48-47 and become the champion, only to be robbed by the judges. Then after a 3 year wait, he moves up to heavyweight and the rest is history. Many fans consider Jones the greatest fighter of all time, and while he is absolutely great despite all the controversy, he doesn't touch guys like GSP and Demetrious Johnson. On my own personal all-time rankings, I am not sure where I want to put Jon now that he ducked Tom, but at best he is third. I am thinking that my list looks something like the following:

1. Demetrious Johnson
2. Georges St. Pierre
3. Jose Aldo
4. Alexander Volkanovski
5. Jon Jones

Guys like Anderson Silva, Islam Makhachev and Khabib Nurmagomedov are right there, but I feel strange putting them all above Jon other. Islam could absolutely pass him depending on what he does at 170, which would push Jon outside of the top 5 for me. I know Jon and nobody else really cares who I think the greatest of all time is, but I just can't call Jones the best with all the controversy and how his career ended. 

Overall, looking back at what he accomplished across his career is impressive, but there are so many asterisks that are hard to ignore. One of the most skilled fighters in the heavier weight classes, but the steroids, eye pokes, and ducking for the past 5 years make it impossible for me to give him much respect. I hope we don't have to hear about Jon again after this, but we probably will when he makes a passive aggressive tweet or gets arrested again. Goodbye and good riddance. 

* Edit: 10 minutes after I posted this, I now see than Jon has had a criminal charge filed against him for allegedly leaving the scene of an accident drunk, and threatening law enforcement! You can't make this up lol. *