Potential Opponents who can Beat Jon Jones

11 long years, 25 opponents, 13 title fights and complete domination. This has been the story of the UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.

The sport of MMA has seen many greats such as Anderson Silva, Demetrious Johnson, Fedor Emelianenko, etc.

But nobody has fought the level of opponents that Jones has in his illustrious career. The current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion has been on a path of destruction since he set foot in the octagon.

No one dominated and choked out Lyoto Machida as he did or stopped Daniel Cormier twice in his tracks by neutralizing his game. He has also defeated the likes of Vitor Belfort, Rampage Jackson, Gustafsson during his time in the UFC as well. But with all this domination there rises a question, who can stand toe to toe with The greatest of all time and find a hole in Jon’s game and exploit it.

Sure few opponents such as Gustafsson, Daniel Cormier, and Thiago Santos were very close to pulling up an upset with a decision victory against Jone. But Jones overcame all of them. Jon’s Phenomenal striking, Solid ground game, second to none wrestling skills and his ability to read his opponent inside the octagon and make adjustments in his game plan to overcome the adversities are what put the Jones on a level above rest of the competition. Even with his controversial lifestyle outside UFC Octagon, it’s undeniable that Jon Jones is one of the greatest to step into the octagon.

But what’s exciting about the sport of MMA is that there is always someone lurking around the corner to dethrone the Champion. Every one thought Fedor was unbeatable until Fabricio Werdum knocked him out. We thought Anderson Silva was the unstoppable phenom until Chris Wiedman knocked the spider out to be the champion. And the list goes on and on. Undeniably the best welterweight of all-time George st pier losing to Matt Serra, Ronda Rousey losing to Holly Holms and Ben Askren losing his long undefeated streak to Masvidal, all these upsets remind us one thing about the sport of mixed martial art that It’s a brutal sport, where anything can happen. Keeping that in mind here is the list of exciting super fights that lie ahead of the light heavyweight king.

Thiago Santos

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​There are very few moments when we thought Jon Jones is not invincible. And his bout against Thiago Santos on UFC 239 main event was one of them. Santos destroyed Jones’s calves with brutal kicks to the point Jon was carried out of the arena in a wheelchair. But Jon cautiously controlled the pace of the fight and won the fight via split decision. An interesting strategy on Jon’s behalf was, he never took the fight to the ground and decided to fight Santos where he was the most vicious.

Another interesting aspect of the fight was, Santos did all that damage to Jon and was able to convince one judge that Jon lost the fight with torn ACL, MCL, and a fractured chin. Now the decision in favor of Jon was not controversial considering how close the fight was, but for few rounds Thiago made us believe that he could defeat Jon. When it comes to rematches Jon learns better than anyone and destroys his opponent when he faces them the second time as he did to DC and Gustafsson. But when you got a wild man such as Santos, who will swing for fences no matter who is standing at the other end of the ring and has a good ground game as a Black belt in Jui Jitsu, we can expect some firework if he faces Jon again in future.

Johny Walker

Coming back to the prospects in the light heavyweight division, many believe there is a scarcity of quality contenders for the championship, but there are fighters such as Corey Anderson, Dominick Reyes, Thiago Santos, who are aiming for the 205 gold. But many believe in 205 Johny Walker has the tools to defeat the living legend, Jon Jones.

With 17 pro wins in his bag, Johny Walker is still new to UFC. But his dynamic in-ring abilities has made many believe that he is the future of the division. While it’s exciting to see these new talents fight at the grandest stage of them all, Johny Walker needs to have few more wins against top 10 ranked fighters before coming into the title picture. Because in the past, we have seen UFC stars such as Darren Till getting pushed to the championship stage too early and it derails their momentum in the business. Nevertheless, it would be a treat to the eyes of UFC fans when Johny Walker challenges Jones for the belt.

Daniel Cormier

Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones. Two greats of the sports but sworn enemies of each other. These two fighters have a very intriguing past with Jones getting the better of DC twice. But currently, both are champions at the different divisions. While Jon is cleaning out the division at 205, DC is the current heavyweight champion after he defeated Stipe Miocic to be a Double Champ back in August 2018.

Now it’s almost certain at this point that these two fighters are going to face each other after DC tries to defend his heavyweight title against the former champion Stipe. But the question is at what weight class. While at one hand DC is adamant to fight Jon where he lost to him twice, Jon is open to fighting DC at heavyweight if the UFC can bring the right price on the table.

But irrespective of the weight division, it’s safe to say that the third instalment of Jones vs DC is going to be fireworks like never before. At heavyweight division, DC is unbeaten both in wrestling and MMA, and he just knocked out the most decorated heavyweight champion of all time, Stipe in the first round. So it would be really interesting to see these two giant names of the sports get face to face inside the octagon at the heavyweight division.

Stipe Miocic

Now there was some heat on social media earlier between the former heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic and the light heavyweight champ Jon Jones. Both of them seemed interested in fighting each other soon. Now if Jon Jones makes a move to heavyweight, there is a good chance the fans are going to rally behind this super fight.

If there is anyone who can beat Jones inside the octagon it is Stipe. Stipe is not a big heavyweight since he weighs around 240lbs. So there won’t be a huge weight difference if Jon and Stipe fight each other at heavyweight. Coming to skills, Stipe is a well-rounded heavyweight.

He can strike with the best strikers, he can wrestle with best wrestlers and he has some serious power in his punches. The way Stipe weathered the storm named Francis Ngannou in the 1st round and dominated Ngannou for the next four rounds just goes to show how tough Stipe is. And with wins over legends such as Alister Overeem, Fabricio Werdum, JDS on his resume, it would be exciting to see how Jones defends his undefeated streak against Miocic, the most decorated heavyweight of all time.

Israel Adesanya

When we are talking about super fights for Jon Jones, a fight with Israel Adesanya is one crazy fight out there. Logically it doesn’t seem feasible for Izzy to go up a division and fight Jones considering he weighs in at 183. But the heat these two individuals have generated over the months and what they have to say about each other certainly make us believe that at some point we are going to see them face each other in the octagon.

In his short span inside UFC octagon, Israel has huge wins over Kevin Gastelum and the legend Anderson silva. But Jon doesn’t seem too impressed with Israel’s performance. He has also claimed that Israel is too small for the light heavyweight, and he would dominate Israel inside the octagon. On the other hand, Israel has been very vocal about Jon’s controversial life outside the octagon and has said that he would face Jon after winning the title at middleweight and clearing out the division.

Every time these two individuals have been asked about each other, things get heated between these two. Skills wise Israel is a world-class striker, who has even fought heavyweights in different organizations and he has also shown a strong takedown defense in his matches. With enough time to work on his ground games, Israel can give a tough fight to Jon, if they fight each other.​