Rivalries: Jon Jones

Jon Jones made plenty of enemies during his rise to power in the Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight division.

The Jackson-Wink MMA representative has enjoyed two title reigns spanning nearly 2,000 days in the 205-pound weight class, his status as a transcendent mixed martial artist brought into question only by his baffling self-destructive behavior outside the cage. Multiple arrests and suspensions cloud his legacy but have thus far had no discernible impact on his performance. In compiling a 26-1 record against top-shelf opposition, Jones has turned away every viable challenger to his light heavyweight throne, some on more than one occasion. The 32-year-old Rochester, New York, native last appeared at UFC 247 on Feb. 8, when he took a unanimous decision from the previously unbeaten Dominick Reyes.

As Jones awaits his next assignment, a look at some of the rivalries upon which he has built his candidacy as the greatest fighter of all-time:

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Daniel Cormier

Cormier talked the talk, but like the all other challengers who preceded him, he fell short of walking the walk against Jones. “Bones” maintained his stranglehold on the light heavyweight title with a resounding unanimous decision against Cormier in the UFC 182 main event on Jan. 3, 2015 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. All three judges awarded the champion four of the five rounds, as he exited the cage with a 49-46 marks across the board. Jones stifled the two-time Olympian in the clinch, executed multiple takedowns in the championship rounds, piled up points with a variety of standup techniques and weathered several encounters with Cormier uppercuts in the highly anticipated five-round affair. Some three months later, the UFC stripped Jones of his title after he tested positive for cocaine and allegedly left the scene of a hit-and-run accident.

The result of their rematch was far more decisive at first glance. Jones reclaimed the undisputed light heavyweight crown in the UFC 214 headliner, as he stopped Cormier with a third-round head kick and follow-up ground-and-pound on July 29, 2017 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. The end came 3:01 into Round 3. However, Jones tested positive for an anabolic steroid and saw the result overturned to a no contest, the UFC responding once again by stripping him of his championship. Bad blood between Jones and the American Kickboxing Academy captain continues to boil.

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Alexander Gustafsson

It was the type of fight that shortens careers and lengthens legacies. Jones kept the light heavyweight crown under his wing with a hard-earned unanimous decision over Gustafsson in the UFC 165 main event on Sept. 21, 2013 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. “Bones” swept the scorecards with 48-47, 48-47 and 49-46 nods from the judges. Gustafsson challenged Jones like no one else had inside the Octagon. He opened a cut over the Jackson-Wink MMA ace’s right eye in the first round, blasted away with multi-punch combinations and appeared to leave him frustrated and bewildered at various points during the 25-minute encounter. Jones mounted a late surge and was particularly effective in the fourth round, where he came close to stopping the Swede after landing one of his patented spinning elbows to his forehead. Despite exhaustion and the copious amount of punishment he had absorbed, Jones found the wherewithal to deliver his only takedown of the fight in the fifth round before belting Gustafsson with a series of kicks to the head. Though “The Mauler” never went down, the points had been banked.

When they met for a second time five years later, the gap between the two men appeared to have widened significantly. Jones reclaimed the undisputed light heavyweight championship with a third-round technical knockout of Gustafsson in the UFC 232 headliner on Dec. 29, 2018 at The Forum in Inglewood, California. “Bones” brought it to a close 2:02 into Round 3, moving to 2-0 in his head-to-head series with the Swede. Jones was again masterful inside the cage. Gustafsson too often found himself stuck in between, either too far away to do damage with his hands or close enough to be drawn into rabbit-hole clinches with his rival. Early in the third round, Jones swooped in for a takedown, elbowed the Alliance MMA rep from half guard and utilized a half nelson to transition to the back. Once he secured his position, “Bones” dropped punches on Gustafsson until referee Mike Beltran had seen enough.

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Rashad Evans

Jones took a world-class fighter and made him look utterly ordinary. He controlled the distance, unveiled a seemingly endless bag of tricks and tightened his stranglehold on the 205-pound weight class when he defeated his former friend and training partner by unanimous decision to retain his light heavyweight championship in the UFC 145 main event on April 21, 2012 at Philips Arena in Atlanta. All three judges saw it for Jones: 49-46, 49-46 and 50-45. Evans, like others who had preceded him, struggled to bypass Jones’ enormous reach advantage. He landed a clean head kick in the first round that seemed to rattle the champion and delivered a stout right hand in the third. Beyond that, he fought mostly with his back to the cage, eating punches and kicks from a distance. Jones punctuated the victory with a strong fifth round, as he backed up a jab with a crisp right hand, uncorked a knee from the clinch and executed the only takedown of the bout. Evans scrambled free, perhaps wary of his counterpart’s infamous elbow strikes on the ground, but his fate had long been sealed.