Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier and the Most Anticipated Fights in UFC History

Jon Jones is the greatest mixed martial arts fighter in the history of the sport. A combination of carefully honed skill and innate physical tools, he's run roughshod over one of the UFC's glamour divisions.

Besides a struggle with Alexander Gustafsson in a fight he eventually won, there's been no sign that Jones will relinquish his title any time soon. In fact, if anything, it's been too easy for the young prodigy. After seven successful defenses, Jones, and the audience, have seemingly grown a little comfortable. 

Olympian Daniel Cormier, however, is the kind of man to knock you right out of your comfort zone.

When Jones enters the cage to defend his UFC light heavyweight belt, it will be more than just a typical title fight. Cormier has the physical gifts and specific skill set to give Jones a real test, to push the young champion just as he comes into his physical prime. 

Athletically, this fight is a marvel. Better still, at least for the UFC's pocket books, when the two got into a dust up at a pre-fight press conference, it became something else entirely—UFC 182 became a bonafide event.

You can't always predict how exciting a fight will turn out to be in the cage. But there have been a handful of other fights in UFC history that were pure electricity before the bell rang, fights that both captured the imagination of the fans and pitted two of the top fighters in their weight class in a "too close to call" kind of contest.

Jones vs. Cormier sits at the top as the most anticipated fight ever. The rest of the top five follow. Disagree? Have another fight to add to the glorious list? Hit me up in the comments.

Ken Shamrock vs. Royce Gracie (UFC 5)

screen capture

Date: April 7, 1995

Location: Independence Arena (Charlotte, NC)

The poster for UFC 3 may have featured the two men in an intense staredown, but the actual rematch between Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie didn't go down until UFC 5—and then only after a superfight between Gracie and Wing Chun legend Emin Boztepe fell through. 

The first Shamrock vs. Gracie fight, a brief grappling exchange won by Gracie with the help of his judogi, lasted less than a minute. The return bout? A whopping 36:00, the longest fight in UFC history. With the development of the Unified Rules of MMA, that's a distinction it will likely hold forever.

Had it been a great fight, it would have been well worth the extra time. Instead, the fight quickly fizzled once the two men hit the cage. The best fighters in the world at the time, both approached the bout like they had everything to lose and nothing to gain.

In a way, that may have been true. More was at stake, for both men, than a UFC championship. 

Shamrock was the reigning King of Pancrase in Japan—another loss to Gracie would have damaged the reputation he was building overseas as a dominant fighter. Gracie, too, was building something bigger, in his case the art of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, a legacy his family was busy selling to the world. 

The result was a plodding and often feckless fight, the action so fleeting that Shamrock has mythologized the single clean punch he landed. The two walked away with a listless and dull draw. The UFC's first superfight, so anticipated by the fans, didn't manage to live up to outsized expectations. 

Randy Couture vs. Kevin Randleman (UFC 28)

screen capture

Date: November 17, 2000

Location: Trump Taj Mahal (Atlantic City, New Jersey)

Randy Couture, the rightful heavyweight champion, had been away from the Octagon for almost three years when he made his much-anticipated return to the UFC in a game-changing fight in Atlantic City. In his absence, another man had emerged as the heavyweight kingpin: fellow wrestler Kevin Randleman. UFC 28 would decide, once and for all, who was the real champion and who was a mere pretender.

Consolidating two branches of the UFC championship title tree, however, was just part of what made this fight so special. The clash— between old and new, black and white, Greco-Roman and folkstyle wrestling—meant plenty to the sports' tight-knit community.

More than that, it was a bout for the very future of the UFC.

Larry Hazzard, commissioner of the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board, was giving MMA a chance in his state, one of the most powerful and influential in the country in the realm of combat sports. After years of heated battles with state governments around the country, the UFC had the opportunity to show one of the industry's most important regulators that it was more than reckless violence and unskilled bar brawlers.

This was a fight for legitimacy as well as a championship belt. And no two men could have better represented the sport that night. With their unquestioned athletic pedigrees, including Randleman's NCAA championships and Couture's Olympic journey, they left no doubt about the quality of athlete featured in the UFC. 

The fight itself was a back-and-forth affair. Couture weathered an early Randleman storm to emerge as champion. But the real winner was the UFC itself, taking a first cautious step towards legitimacy and a suddenly foreseeable future as a mainstream sport.

Georges St-Pierre vs. BJ Penn (UFC 94)

Date: January 31, 2009

Location: MGM Grand (Las Vegas, Nevada)

At UFC 84, BJ Penn solidified his claim to the promotion's lightweight title, smashing former champion Sean Sherk with a running knee for the ages. What had long been assumed was finally substantiated by demonstrable accomplishment—BJ Penn was the best lightweight fighter in the world.

But simply being the best lightweight in the world wasn't a big enough dream for a man like BJ Penn. After the fight, he made clear what was next, at least if he had any say in the matter—welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre. 

Welterweight, of course, wasn't exactly uncharted territory for Penn. He had won the championship at 170 pounds against the great Matt Hughes at UFC 46. Hughes, however, had been relegated to history. GSP, the young Canadian charmer who would go on to become the sport's top box-office draw, sat on the throne, and St-Pierre had unfinished business with Penn.

In their first fight, Penn had pushed GSP to his limits, losing a decision many thought rightfully belonged to the Hawaiian. With both men at the top of their respective divisions, the time seemed right for a rematch. The UFC debuted the excellent Primetime series to promote the bout on Spike TV, and fandom was rabid for the fight by the time the fighters took to the cage.

St-Pierre, however, left no room for doubt in the second bout. Using his bulk to push Penn up against the cage, he broke the challenger's body and, more importantly, his will.

Penn quit on his stool after the fourth round, thoroughly defeated. Though he returned to his lightweight title reign, BJ was never again quite the same fighter. 

Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir II (UFC 100)

Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images

Date: July 11, 2009

Location: Mandalay Bay Events Center (Las Vegas, Nevada)

While Brock Lesnar's pro wrestling background is often credited for his success at the box office for the UFC, that's only part of the story. In truth, Lesnar's first UFC appearance, underneath a heavyweight title fight, drew only a relatively pedestrian 600,000 pay-per-view buys.

That was good but not far removed from what other top fighters were drawing at the time.

What separated Lesnar wasn't just his pro wrestling roots—it was his physical presence. He may have lost that first UFC appearance against Frank Mir, but his power, speed and athleticism were undeniable. Brock Lesnar was a beast. That, combined with his wrestling fame, is what brought fans flocking for his fights.

The rematch with Mir, especially, resonated. Mir represented MMA tradition. Lesnar was the brash outsider. Mir represented science; Lesnar was power personified. This was a battle, not just of styles, but of mentality. This was a clash of cultures.

In their initial encounter, Mir was able to outthink Lesnar. But by the time they met a second time, that pure and vital American energy had been carefully honed and crafted into a fighting machine. Lesnar no longer represented potential. He was a fully realized champion, corn-fed and desperate for redemption.

The resulting beating was primal. Lesnar's scream of triumph and refusal to show Mir a customary level of respect defined who he was as a man—and where the sport was going in the future. Lesnar wasn't just the biggest star in UFC history. He was a harbinger of what was to come.