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Jon Jones is undoubtedly one of the greatest fighters of the modern era. The former UFC light heavyweight champion ruled the division for years and holds many records including the most title defenses, wins, longest win streak, and most submission victories at light heavyweight.
For the better part of his reign as champion, Jones was considered by many as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
However, just as much as his career has been full of groundbreaking achievements, it has also been laden with controversy. Between 2015 and 2017, Jones lost his title thrice due to disciplinary action being taken against him. It started with the UFC stripping Jones of his title and removing him from the official rankings in 2015 after he was arrested on hit-and-run charges.
He then returned to fight and beat both Ovince Saint Preux and Daniel Cormier in 2016 and 2017 respectively, but later tested positive for the use of banned substances, resulting in the fight against Cormier being reversed to a no-contest.
Jon Jones' past will always come back to haunt him, says Josh Thomson
According to Daniel Cormier's AKA teammate Josh Thomson, these controversies are the reason why Khabib Nurmagomedov replaced Jon Jones as the #1 UFC pound-for-pound fighter. Both Jones and Khabib Nurmagomedov boast of spectacular records inside the octagon and they deserve to be at the peak of the UFC pound-for-pound mountain.
However, Thomson believes that the controversies that Jon Jones has been in related to the use of banned substances are the reason why the popular opinion may have shifted towards Khabib holding the #1 spot.
In response to Jones' tweet taking a dig at Cormier, saying that guys at the American Kickboxing Academy don't like him, Thomson told Jones that guys at AKA don't hate him but the fact that he was caught cheating multiple times is why he will never be considered the GOAT of the fight game.
Nah, all the guys at AKA just hate the fact that you wasted all that God given talent being a PED cheat. Especially since you didn’t need too. Fact is, you’ll never be the GOAT because of that. Someone gotta tell you the truth, Jon.
Jon Jones' has already expressed his displeasure over the UFC dropping him to #2 in the pound-for-pound rankings. His last fight was against Dominick Reyes at UFC 247 back in February this year when Jones managed to scrape past the challenger in a narrow-decision win.
Since then, Bones has vacated his title and pledged a move to heavyweight.
