There are far tougher claims to sell than suggesting mixed martial arts’ two best fighters will appear on the same UFC card on Saturday night in Las Vegas. Tabbing Jon Jones as the best pound-for-pound competitor in the octagon over his colleague Demetrious Johnson is one easy example.
Jones, the deposed UFC light heavyweight champion, and Johnson, the reigning flyweight king, find themselves inserted into a debate worth waging for no other reason than it draws attention to how well both fighters have fared in recent years.
Jones and Johnson are total opposites in many areas of their lives, yet they’re bonded ahead of UFC 197 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena as physically and technically gifted winners who can also serve as their own worst enemies.
From a skills perspective, few fighters used the elements that make up MMA so seamlessly or effectively as these two, whose combined records stand at 44-3-1.
The 6ft 4in light heavyweight – Jones’s reach is 21in longer than the 5ft 3in Johnson is tall – was cut down to size while watching the belt he won in 2011 get claimed by his heated rival, Daniel Cormier, last May. It was Cormier whom Jones was slated to fight in the main event at UFC 197. However, when an injury sidelined the squat wrestler, Ovince Saint Preux stepped into a contest that turned into an interim title fight.
Prior to Jones being sidelined by legal issues he was a couple wins away from tying the record by Brazilian middleweight great Anderson Silva for most consecutive title defenses at 10. Constant success in memorable fashion made Jones an attraction for the UFC. People want to watch Jones not because he was likable or funny. Rather, the devastation he registered was attractive in a division that had long been considered the UFC’s marquee class.
Twelve years removed from his days as a backup defensive player for the University of Tennessee football team, Saint Preux seems unlikely to derail Jones. Finding a believable argument in Saint Preux’s favor isn’t easy to come by, but if Jones is threatened at all by 33-year-old ex-linebacker it will happen if he suffers a lapse in concentration during his first contest in 15 months.
Despite all of his detracting moments, Jones has consistently prevailed in spectacular performances befitting an athlete of his ability. He is, like Johnson, at his best when he fights, and Jones has said how much he’s looking forward to focusing on competition again instead of community service.
Jones spent much of his off time improving an already impressive and scary list of attributes, perhaps none more so than his strength. When we last saw Jones, he was a long fighter with chicken legs whose use of leverage, distance and agility made him a nightmare to fight. Now he appears to have added muscle to his game, which will be important as Jones seeks to generate more power during the prime of his career, especially with a looming move to the heavyweight division.
While Jones’s indiscretions infamously sidelined and exposed him to embarrassing headlines that cost him the UFC title, Johnson’s quiet killer status inside a division that earns little attention from media and fans causes him to be nearly invisible amongst the UFC’s stable of stars.
Even as he looks for his eighth straight title defense this weekend against 2008 Olympic gold medal wrestler Henry Cejudo – putting “Mighty Mouse” two away from tying Silva’s record if successful – Johnson hasn’t been able to build up to any big-money events or persistent attention on his own.
The only time people tend to talk about Demetrious Johnson is when he fights, and even then barely. Dominating a weight class that lacks obvious needle movers makes the lightest men’s category in the UFC its least bankable, and as a result Johnson’s demands for larger paydays, particularly were he to move up 10lbs to fight a Dominick Cruz, have fallen on Zuffa’s deaf ears.
Henry Cejudo, the man challenging Johnson, comes across as a charismatic and incredible competitor eager to share his compelling life story. Because of his Olympic success Cejudo was pegged from his entry into MMA three years ago as an athlete capable of lifting the fortunes of smaller fighters like Johnson. He started slowly, then turned a corner when he debuted in the UFC in December 2014.
If Cejudo improves his record to 11-0 on Saturday, it will be because he finally put his vast array of talents together. Cejudo’s trainers said the challenger has yet to execute his full game, but they expect him to do just that against Johnson. At the very least it shouldn’t surprise anyone if Cejudo controls wrestling moments with Johnson, though the champion is so technical and smart in the cage that anything less than a perfect effort from the challenger won’t be enough.
Both Johnson and Jones have heard this type of talk around previous opponents. In response, regardless of the caliber of the man standing opposite them, they’ve gone out and put together a stellar collection of victories. Complete efforts that made more than competent fighters appear ineffectual. That is why they are widely regarded as the two best mixed martial artists competing today.
