Jon Jones is the greatest mixed martial arts fighter in the history of the sport. A combination of carefully honed skill and innate physical tools, he’s run roughshod over one of the UFC’s glamour divisions.
Besides a struggle with Alexander Gustafsson in a fight he eventually won, there’s been no sign that Jones will relinquish his title any time soon. In fact, if anything, it’s been too easy for the young prodigy. After seven successful defenses, Jones, and the audience, have seemingly grown a little comfortable.
Olympian Daniel Cormier, however, is the kind of man to knock you right out of your comfort zone.
When Jones enters the cage to defend his UFC light heavyweight belt, it will be more than just a typical title fight. Cormier has the physical gifts and specific skill set to give Jones a real test, to push the young champion just as he comes into his physical prime.
Athletically, this fight is a marvel. Better still, at least for the UFC’s pocket books, when the two got into a dust up at a pre-fight press conference, it became something else entirely—UFC 182 became a bonafide event.
You can’t always predict how exciting a fight will turn out to be in the cage. But there have been a handful of other fights in UFC history that were pure electricity before the bell rang, fights that both captured the imagination of the fans and pitted two of the top fighters in their weight class in a “too close to call” kind of contest.
Jones vs. Cormier sits at the top as the most anticipated fight ever. The rest of the top five follow. Disagree? Have another fight to add to the glorious list? Hit me up in the comments.