In a lot of ways, Jon Jones is the LeBron James of MMA. And he has Daniel Cormier to thank for that.
There is no question Jon Jones holds the same once-in-a-decade physical tools as his basketball counterpart. He has the same work ethic, the same athletic swagger, the same drive to be illustrious. At a young age, Jones and James both sit astride their respective sports.
But they both do so uneasily. Despite their desire to be liked and to envelop all they see in their personal brands, the fans sense insincerity, and that sense is validated by questionable decisions away from the playing surface. Peeks behind the curtain routinely reveal something different from those things that take the stage for public consumption.
Jon Jones didn’t mean for it to happen this way, but Daniel Cormier helped fans see the real Jones. Through his abiding and toothsome feud with Jones, the Olympic wrestler made Jones much more human than Jones would have ever done himself. Just like LeBron; sometimes it’s those unintended things that carry the more interesting consequences.
In any case, Jones, the LeBron James of MMA, the sport’s greatest active competitor—and maybe its best of all time—made a bid Saturday night to defend his UFC light heavyweight belt for an eighth time. Seeing as how Cormier had never lost a round and presented unprecedented challenges, he might be Jones’ stiffest challenger to date. Either way, the tastiest thing about these feuds in MMA is that there’s nothing figurative about score-settling.
On Saturday in Las Vegas at UFC 182, they settled it.
But there were moments up and down the 11-fight slate that created clear winners and losers. As always, the final stat lines only reveal so much. Here’s who really came out on top Saturday night and who really came up short.