He didn't need the HW strap to be considered the GOAT. This will make it much more difficult for anyone to ever surpass him though.

I guess a guy who couldn't stay on his feet vs Ngannou probably wasn't going to be able to vs Jones

Did they already release odds for if/when/why Jones will be stripped of the title?

What's more likely this time, failed test or personal conduct?

If he manages to get stripped for a fourth time, that record might stand forever now that Connor is that far away from winning another title.

wow didn't really look like he had much and he tapped.

Stipe vs Jones is interesting

Wow that **** didn't even look real. Gane defends the takedown so half-assedly and just accepts the guillotine. Absolute garbage.

When you're completely outclassed in wrestling that's how it tends to look. Look at how easily Cormier took huge Derrick Lewis down, or Couture when he lunged at James Toney from distance and took him down by the ankle with ease.

Love Jones the fighter but Jones the person just a textbook narcissist psychopath, lies are second nature

Gane making everyone look like Dagestani wrestlers out there

Na Stipe is old man. Turning 41 in the summer. And he lost his last fight.

Give Jones the winner of Pavlovich/Blaydes imho. They deserve it more

Also the fiancee of Jones wasn't really hot, that was unexpected. Is that the one he beat up?

Jones vs Stipe sells more. Jones wants Stipe. That's the fight that will happen (barring any stupidity from Stipe).

Jones seems to want this fight REAL bad. I think he'll absolutely destroy Stipe given how motivated Jones seems for this fight. From a matchup perspective, Stipe is obviously much more well rounded than Gane and is not as easy to take down or submit. I think Stipe's chin is probably gone, but that's not too relevant since Jones lacks power.

Apparently Jones will be dropping weight for his next fight so expect him to be that much quicker and just as strong if not stronger than what we saw tonight. Apparently he had only sparred 3 times before this fight due to a slight injury. That and the fact that he'll just be more comfortable at HW, expect a much better Jon Jones, although we didn't really get to see much of him tonight. I was just happy to see him pushing the action and going for the takedown rather than just point fighting from the outside. Actually, I think he'd be more likely to point fight against Stipe, but he says he intends to finish him before the championship rounds so let's see.

It sounds like Jones told the commission he wouldn't compete if they didn't let him keep his toes taped. Can you imagine the **** show that would have ensued if the commission held firm and told him he must remove the tape and then Jon Jones just walked back to the locker room lol

Jones GOAT talk has always been, and still is grossly exaggerated. He's king of what have always been the weakest divisions in the UFC. Champs in other divisions haven't been able to be so dominant because their divisions have a much deeper talent pool.

Ngannou needs to come back to the UFC to fight Jones, there's nothing for him outside of mma unless he really thinks he can convert to a boxer in a year or so.

Brunson screwed me over last night. Dominated round 1 and looked dead for start of round 2. The referee should have stopped it as Brunson was out on his feet and didn't have a clue what was going on at the end of the round.

Heavyweight division is really weak. They need to pay Ngannou the money and get him back. Last night didn't tell us much about Jones and seemed a super early tap by Cyril.

Only heavyweight fighters I rate are Pavlovich and Aspinall.

Why would they do that? They'll do Stipe in July then have the option between Pavlovich/Blaydes winner and another gimmick fight probably early next year. Whatever of those two it is, they'll probably do the other option maybe MSG 2024.

That leaves at least two years to get Ngannou back on their terms, not on his. And even if that doesn't work out the UFC won't bother too much.

That's an absolutely ridiculous opinion. LHW was considered the 2nd strongest division (After WW) back in the day and Jones completely destroyed a who's who of that division including 5 former UFC champions in a row.

Seems more like you are talking about Anderson Silva, but yeah he's an all-time great too.

This is nonsense. Lightweight was always a very strong division. Featherweight as well. GSP and Aldo have beaten a much higher calibre of fighters than Jones.

I don't know what you want them to do. They offered to make him the highest paid HW in UFC history, which frankly is way more than he deserves because he has never sold many PPVs or put many butts in seats.

He obviously thinks he can make mega bucks in a big money boxing match. That's why he's asking an astronomical amount. Hopefully he can get paid in boxing, not sure. Thing is, there's a lot more for him to lose in the UFC. If he were to face Jon Jones and Jones were to do him like he did Gane then Ngannou's value goes from high to hardly anything (as long as Jones continues to fight in the UFC).

Yeah, they were so good that the UFC didn't even have those divisions for many years. Frankie Edgar and Jose Aldo who both last fought at 135lbs were champions of those 2 divisions.

All the people criticizing the way Jon Jones handled the press post fight are pathetic. Probably never accomplished anything reputable in your lives. Sure, he has been no saint but at least he self admits his faults and attempts to move forward with his faults as a person which is more to say than most of you have probably ever done in your lives.

Good for him and congratulations on his victory. Also, I had to wiki him because based on some of the comments in this thread I thought he may have killed someone in his past but as a casual fan I also had no idea his brother was Chandler Jones when looking up his background. Anyway, hope he is able to better control his addictions to drugs and alcohol in the future. Nice win by him. The UFC clearly needs him.

also, I lost a small amount of money betting the other guy; "which I'd never heard of before as I'm a casual fan of the sport". Just so that's clear. I actually thought the value might lie in the less popular/less well known non american fighter VS Jon Jones in Vegas so I just threw a small amount on the other guy for fun.

I'm not saying he doesn't win on some days but the outcome doesn't bode well towards my wager on most days. ESPN makes it's looks like he landed a few strikes but the only one I recalled was the illegal kick to Jon Jone's nuts.

He french, of course he did

If the UFC was an Olympic sport instead of entertainment, he would have been banned for life. That said, I thought the UFC was a significantly better product when everyone was roided to the grills. Banning PEDs from entertainment sports like UFC or WWE doesn't make much sense to me.

So, Francis tries to make a few quid in boxing - loses against anyone decent - then comes back when Jones has cleaned up a bit?

Hindsight is always 20/20. There were many unknowns going into that fight and plenty of reason to be skeptical of Jones. Even if the Jon Jones we saw last night was good enough to beat Gane 9 out of 10 times, that doesn't mean the odds should reflect a 9 to 1 advantage.