Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Heavyweight champion Jon Jones makes his highly anticipated return to active competition at UFC 309 next weekend (Sat., Nov. 16, 2024) against former champion Stipe Miocic from inside Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Last year, NBA star James Johnson made headlines by claiming that if given one year to train in mixed martial arts (MMA), he could defeat Jones in a fight.
Rightfully so, he got dragged all over social media.
Last month on the OGs Podcast, he doubled down and said he would have an advantage over Jones in a fight in the stand-up department because he competed in kickboxing.
“I truly, truly believe that [I can beat Jones]. I’ve been doing this my whole life,” Johnson said. “Like, real training would really be for that groundwork. As far as standing up in a fight, I feel like I got an advantage.”
Jones did not reply to the first outrageous claim, but he did this time.
“I didn’t realize until now that basketball players got CTE as well, this man sounds crazy,” Jones wrote on Instagram.
Johnson, who is 6 feet 7 inches and weighs 240 pounds, and an NBA broadcast claimed the basketball star holds a 20-0 kickboxing record and a 7-0 MMA record. A simple Google search and some help from Reddit revealed that Johnson, in fact, has no professional fights on his resume.
Hell, even Israel Adesanya came to Jones’ defense to clown the NBA player by writing, “I see red, bro!”
Johnson can now be added to the list of delusional people that believe that size and athleticism can win a fight against a professional MMA champion … Bradley Martin says hello.