Jon Jones weighs in on Ilia Topuria’s rise and the burden of staying champion: "Time will tell"

UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones recently weighed in on the meteoric rise of Ilia Topuria to the upper echelon of MMA greats. Jones, largely considered one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time, has a lot of similarities with Ilia Topuria, career-wise.

Like Jones, Topuria only needed seven wins to bag his first UFC gold. Like Jones, Topuria's path to the top of the mountain was also riddled in finishes. The only difference is that Jones dominated his first division - light-heavyweight - for nearly a decade first before moving up to heavyweight to challenge for a second belt.

As for Topuria, after defending his UFC featherweight title once, he decided to relinquish it to move up to lightweight to challenge for a new throne.

On Topuria's rise to the top, Jones told VicBlends of DeepCut podcast:

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"Time will tell. One thing that I know from experience, being in this sport for so long, is that it’s difficult to win the belt. It's more difficult to live the lifestyle of a UFC champion and continue being a UFC champion. The fame, the press, the money, the girls, the alcohol — all of it doubles down on you, and very few people can handle it."

Check out Jon Jones' comments below:

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Jon Jones offers up more wisdom on Ilia Topuria's career: "It's always going to be a matter of time"

Jon Jones, in his 17-year MMA career, has pretty much done everything a fighter could possibly wish. He's experienced the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows.

What has been most documented by the media, however, were his troubles outside the cage. The partying, the DUIs, and the banned substance were all deemed to have marred the legacy of the 'Bones'.

What these mishaps have done were make Jon Jones wiser, as mistakes can only make us better individuals - so long as we learn from them. With the wisdom of a wise owl, Jones had these words for Topuria:

"I actually do wish Ilia all the support in the world. I know he has a great family, great management team. I think he’s gonna do the right things. We’ll see. So it’s always going to be a matter of time — it’s a very hard thing to maintain."

Ilia Topuria faces Charles Oliveira for the vacant UFC lightweight title at UFC 317, International Fight Week on June 28. The event will take place inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

About the author

Duane is an expert MMA writer at Sportskeeda with over 10 years of experience working for the likes of Philippine Star, Esquire Philippines, Playboy Philippines, etc. A major in English, he has written over 2000 articles for Sportskeeda section, extensively covering UFC and boxing fights.

Duane is a practicing MMA fighter with a 11-7 record. He is also a Brazilian jiu-jitsu purple belt and trains Muay Thai. His connection with MMA dates back to 2005, when he turned into a fan after watching Fedor Emelianenko defeat Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic at Pride FC - Final Conflict 2005.

Emelianenko finds himself right at the top of Duane’s Mt. Rushmore of MMA fighters, alongside other big names like Demetrious Johnson, Jon Jones, Georges St-Pierre, and Anderson Silva.

Duane’s love for the sport is reflected in his writings, where he believes in speculating but not insinuating. He uses his intensive knowledge and skills in MMA to provide unique insights to the readers, along with sourcing information only from reliable sources.

Outside of work, Duane enjoys martial arts training, visual arts, film criticism, video games, and creative writing.

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Edited by Tejas Rathi