A huge debate has raged as Jon Jones called out Khabib Nurmagomedov being named as the GOAT of MMA
Ben Askren waded into the debate on who is the #1 pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC. Some quarters have suggested that Khabib Nurmagomedov is the GOAT but Jon Jones wasn’t having any of that.
The former Light Heavyweight champion has moved up to the Heavyweight division and wants more gold.
Khabib, for his part, finished his career at 29-0 and it is unlikely he will be back. Jones has spoken about his 15 or so title battles in the UFC while Khabib only had four.
Askren was on the Schmozone and asked about this. The former UFC star claimed he sided with Khabib and explained why Jones’ past is a problem as the Russian was named as #1 in the pound-for-pound rankings:
“Jon Jones is pissed. Let me tell you.
“I am not dumb enough to realise that Jon has a very very compelling argument. He definitely does. Just for me, performance-enhancing failures, drug test failures, multiple times, which Khabib never had.
“Khabib’s Russian so he might be cheating but he got a good body to get away with something, I am not sure.
“With the out of the cage stuff and with the last few fights which lot of people think he lost the Dominick Reyes fight and the Thiago Santos one was very close, man, Khabib was kind of like flawless in his career.”
Khabib not fighting regularly
Askren, however, understood that different arguments could be put up for the case of Jones. The former champion had several battles for the titles and always managed to come out on top.
Further, Askren, The Schmo and Helen Yee also brought up how little Khabib had battled when he was in the UFC.
The Russian never had more than twice in a year during his time with the promotion. However, Khabib did fight seven times in 2011 but that was all in Russia.
The debate on who the GOAT is will rage on for a long time. Jones and Khabib both have incredible bodies of work and picking one over the other isn’t issue.
That is why this huge split has emerged, and it will be interesting to see how Jones does in his new division. Another title win could see a shift towards him in the pound-for-pound rankings and the title of the GOAT too.
This was an exclusive interview from The Schmozone Podcast. For more exclusive interviews and content please follow the link.
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