If you haven’t heard, Rolling Stone put out a piece earlier this week about something Urijah Faber said, although those willing to jump the gun for UFC 139 might be disappointed to learn that Faber kept Brian Bowles’ name out of his mouth.
When it came to UFC light heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones, however, Faber was a bit more vocal, saying that Jones might be “the Michael Jordan of MMA.”
With all due respect to Faber and his opinion, that is a premature statement. Jordan’s NBA career is a bit more decorated than Jones’ record, although that could be a subjective viewpoint.
Also, one has to account for Jordan’s longevity compared to the three-to-four years Jones has been in MMA when talking about the comparisons to Jordan, but while the argument is premature hype, is it inaccurate to make a notion of such a bold statement simply because it seems premature?
Some would not think so, taking Jones’ career so far into effect.
After all, Jones can’t boast a Rookie of the Year trophy, six NBA championships, multiple NBA honors, a 2009 Basketball Hall of Fame induction or a three-minute ovation from his peers, colleagues and opponents, but it didn’t take Jones almost seven years to earn his crack at the UFC light heavyweight title either.
With Faber’s words about Jones possibly being MMA’s Michael Jordan (or perhaps saying that he has that potential) comes some honest truth.
Jones has only been in the sport for close to four years, yet he’ll close to reaching the record Tito Ortiz set for the number of consecutively successful UFC light heavyweight title defenses with a UFC 140 win over Lyoto Machida and a potential 2012 win over Rashad Evans.
He’s shown us moves that most other “flashy” strikers wouldn’t have tried, he’s utilized certain positions in ways most other fighters would not plan to utilize them and on top of it all, he’s made great fighters look horrendous in the time he’s spent in the UFC alone, yet he has not neared his peak years as of yet.
Jones has more to show the world and conceivably may set a new athletic standard in the world, and the scariest part about it all, as many will agree, is that Jones is only 24 years old right now. He’s already elevated to the status of the greats.
With the UFC light heavyweight title comes his accompanying distinction of being one of the top 10 pound-for-pound best fighters in MMA right now, but he hasn’t shown us everything that we could ever expect to see from him.
That is what makes his youth in the sport the scariest thing about the whole Michael Jordan comparison and why the comparison makes some sense.
Jones isn’t Jordan, nor will he ever be, but he’s arguably as good right now—before his prime—as Jordan was in his prime, and that begs a question:
If this is him before he even hits his best years, what will he be like when he really does hit his best years?
Many asked that when they first saw a good year out of Jordan and we all know how Jordan turned out.
If Jones hasn’t truly shown us everything he’s capable of yet, it’s possible that when he does finally fade and retire his gloves, it could be the end of one of the greatest careers in the history of combat sports.
To quote a certain someone, he is “that damn good,” whether anyone likes it or not.
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