Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal is keeping everything in perspective, including the excessive hype surrounding UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
Since defeating Ryan Bader in February, Jones has kept the ball rolling in 2011, dispatching of legendary light heavyweights Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Lyoto Machida.
While the world sees Jones’ potential to be a future all-time great, some have already likened the young lion to Muhammad Ali and propelled him past Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre in the pound-for-pound ranks.
“Jon Jones is doing his thing, but he’s new on the scene. It’s funny because [MMA fans] are quick to forget people,” King Mo said in an interview on MMAWeekly Radio.
“Two years ago, Jose Aldo was on top of the world, and a year before that, Miguel Torres, ‘Oh, no one can beat him.’ Before that, Urijah Faber, ‘No one’s touching him.’ The fans want to be analysts, and they’re just fans, so they get excited easily.”
Aldo is an interesting example of how quickly opinions can change amongst MMA fans. The UFC featherweight champ hasn’t lost a professional bout since November 2005 and has defended his WEC/UFC title four consecutive times.
After destroying former champion Urijah Faber in April 2010, the MMA world hoisted Aldo on its shoulders and proclaimed him as the No. 3 best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, behind only GSP and Silva.
Now, the champ would be lucky to crack into the top five of most rankings, despite his continued dominance over the 145-pound division.
“No one is unbeatable. People get excited about the biggest thing. MMA is almost like a trend,” said Lawal. “People in MMA follow trends, even the fighters and the styles. What style is hot? Tapout and Affliction. ‘Oh, this fighter is hot, so he’s unbeatable.’ And the first person to beat him is unbeatable.”
Jones may not be invincible, but it’s tough to fathom anyone derailing him at this point in his career. In every bout, he seems light years ahead of the competition. King Mo sees Jones as a special talent, but he also understands that a slip up could come at any time.
“Many people could beat him. Jon Jones can beat himself by buying into the hype or just not training. Mike Tyson beat himself. There’s other guys out there stylistically that could be bad matchups. I’m not going to say who because I know. I’m not going to let the cat out the bag because I know.”
As far as pound-for-pound rankings are concerned, King Mo isn’t quite ready to hand the top spot over to Jones just yet. He doesn’t see the rankings as merely dominating a specific division. The top spot belongs to fighters who find success in multiple weight classes.
“Pound-for-pound, I’d probably say Anderson because he’s fought at 185 and 205,” said King Mo. “When I think of pound-for-pound, I think of guys that can go up in weight and be able to do just as good.”
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