Ranking Jon Jones on UFC's Mount Rushmore
Mount Rushmore.
No longer is it just a granite masterpiece in South Dakota. It's morphed into a perfect sports-talk metaphor for discussing the four best entities in a given sport.
The B/R combat team is always happy to wade into the debate pool, and the sudden retirement of two-division champ Jon Jones provides the perfect opportunity to apply the Rushmore criteria to the UFC.
Does "Bones" warrant a spot? And if so, where does he belong in the elite pecking order? Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the app comments.
Honorable Mentions
1 of 5
Amanda Nunes: If we were going with an all-women's list, it's a cinch that the Brazilian tops it. But though we went with men exclusively here, she still deserves a hat-tip for being one of the greatest of all time.
Conor McGregor: No, he's not on the level of the four guys we've included. And there are plenty of reasons to cringe when hearing his name. But it's no less true that he's the biggest crossover star the company has ever produced.
Ronda Rousey: Blend the Nunes and McGregor reasonings and you have the "Rowdy" one, who put the UFC women's division on the map during her run and was a main event entity while doing so.
4. Khabib Nurmagomedov
2 of 5
If you want to suggest "The Eagle" warrants higher placement, we won't argue.
In fact, the only smudge on Nurmagomedov's record in the UFC is that his stay was too brief, comprising just 13 fights from the moment he appeared on a UFC on FX undercard in 2012 to his tearful goodbye after choking out Justin Gaethje in 2020.
Nurmagomedov won the vacant lightweight title in 2018 and defended it just three times, smothering the high-profile likes of McGregor, Dustin Poirier and Gaethje with a grappling-heavy attack that yielded submissions from each in a combined nine rounds.
Given that he's still just 36 years old and exited at his peak, it's easy to imagine the Dagestani powerhouse still reigning at 155 pounds had he not retired. Still, he shot down the idea of a return last fall, saying "there is no chance. Not even 1 percent."
3. Anderson Silva
3 of 5
On the flip side of Nurmagomedov's brief but productive run with the company, we have the spectacular Silva, who may have stayed long enough to dull his luster.
At his peak, though, "The Spider" was as good as there's been.
The sublimely skilled Brazilian moved at angles never seen in the UFC prior to his arrival, producing highlight-reel finishes that rival anything since. In fact, he remains among the promotion's all-time leaders in KOs (third, 11) and is still No. 1 in the record book with a 16-fight win streak that went from 2006 to 2012.
Silva was the middleweight champ for nearly seven years before an upset loss to Chris Weidman in 2013, and he went just 1-6 with a no-contest, including three defeats by KO, before he was released by the promotion in 2020.
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2. Georges St-Pierre
4 of 5
There's plenty of reason to back St-Pierre as the UFC's all-time best.
The Canadian was a two-time kingpin at 170 pounds, lost two fights but beat both his conquerors in rematches, and he came back from a four-year retirement to choke out then-middleweight champ and future Hall of Famer Michael Bisping as an encore.
His seamless blend of karate, muay thai, wrestling and jiu-jitsu made him a dangerous commodity no matter the in-fight circumstances, and he racked up title-fight wins by both KOs and submissions, not to mention a series of shutout decisions.
St-Pierre became a Hall of Famer himself with his modern wing induction in 2020 and his career totals for both control time (2:42:04) and top position time (2:22:05) remain No. 1 in the record book, alongside his No. 2 for title-fight wins (13).
1. Jon Jones
5 of 5
Say what you will about his antics outside the cage or how much interest, if any, he had in ever engaging with the likes of Francis Ngannou or Tom Aspinall.
When it came to actual combat, Jones was one of one.
And unlike the fighters alongside him on the mountaintop, he never really lost.
The only blemishes on his record came from either a DQ (for illegal elbows) or a no-contest (for a failed drug test), but they pale in comparison to his 22 UFC wins—including a company-record 16 in title fights—and championships at two weights.
His run at light heavyweight included finishes of "Shogun" Rua, "Rampage" Jackson, Lyoto Machida, Vitor Belfort, Chael Sonnen and Alexander Gustafsson, before a three-year hiatus that preceded a rise to heavyweight and consecutive routs of Ciryl Gane (submission) and Stipe Miocic (KO).
No less an authority than Dana White considers him the best of the best, too.
"There's no doubt that Jon is special," the UFC president said. "He's the greatest of all time. He's undefeated. He's never lost a fight in the UFC ever. He's fought all the best competition out there."
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