For All The Marbles: Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic is the perfect legacy fight
In case you missed it, Jon Jones is set to make his first title defense at UFC 295 in November against heavyweight legend Stipe Miocic. The fight marks a fight between the two best fighters in history from the light heavyweight division and the heavyweight division. After years of missing out on these types of fights, the UFC finally got one right and booked a legacy fight that matters.
How is Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic Possible?
It’s not often in sport you have two of the greatest fighters of all time in two different divisions available to fight each other. Floyd Mayweather and Roberto Duran were in completely different eras and not available to fight, oh what a fight that would be. Michael Jordan and LeBron James never faced off. And nobody has even imagined how Babe Ruth would fare against Nolan Ryan. It’s part of why GOAT debates are often so futile. Joe Burrow and the 2019 LSU Tigers were never given the opportunity to face the 2001 Miami Hurricanes because of time.
But with MMA, our sport is relatively young. Boxing introduced it’s first belt in 1810, the NBA started in 1949, and baseball started in 1839. These sports are hundreds of years old (basketball is making it’s way). But MMA as a popular sport only began in 1993, making it only 29 years old. During that time, we’ve seen a rapid improvement of in skill and technique that has made modern MMA fighters leaps and bounds better than their predecessors.
It’s hard to imagine anyone beating Jon Jones from UFC 1. He’d smash Teila Tuli, Gerard Gordeau, Ken Shamrock, and Royce Grace all on the same night.
It’s due to the age of the sport that’s allowed us so many new GOATs in each division and given us opportunities at super fights not possible in a sport like boxing.
Super Fights: Missed Opportunities
Fans love super fights. What Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic’s UFC 295 matchup represents is a makeup of sorts for missed “GOAT fights” in the past. Think about the fights that got away:
- Georges St-Pierre versus Anderson Silva
- Jose Aldo versus Dominick Cruz
- Georges St-Pierre versus Khabib Nurmagomedov
- Anderson Silva versus Jon Jones
- Israel Adesanya versus Jon Jones
There’s probably more in there I missed as well. But those missed fights hurt and hurt terribly. Perhaps Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva the most.
This isn’t to say the UFC doesn’t make super fights. Most recently we had Islam Makhachev and Alexander Volkanovski face off in the first ever #1 P4P vs. #2 P4P fight. Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier had a duo of fights that consisted of two double champions facing off. Another is GSP and BJ Penn facing off. Daniel Cormier, again, when he had his trilogy with Stipe Miocic. The UFC makes huge fights. They just don’t always make them. Perhaps it’s impossible.
Boxing has had this problem. Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. never really fought. Mike Tyson and George Foreman is another. Sugar Ray Leonard and Aaron Pryor. Roberto Duran vs. Alexis Arguello. Joe Frazier vs. Ken Norton. I can go on for days. But boxing has given us Jack Dempsey vs. Luis Firpo, Marvin Hagler vs. Sugar Ray Leonard, Muhammad Ali vs. George Foreman, and soon to be Errol Spence versus Terence Crawford.
The UFC is giving us a legacy defining fight at UFC 295. Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic are already secured in the annals of MMA history. Having them fight on top of all they accomplished, all that they’ve done, is just icing on the cake. This time, we get our cake and eat it too.
