UFC 285 takeaways: Jon Jones puts the GOAT debate to rest for now

For the first time in a long time, Jon Jones was Jon Jones on Saturday night. His two-minute drubbing of Ciryl Gane? A literal flawless victory, the first “Bones” has manifested since his 2018 rematch against Alexander Gustafsson, and a stark reminder of the awe-inspiring destructive power Jones is capable of when he feels as if he has something to prove. The fight lasted a bit longer than 13 seconds, sure, but UFC 285’s main event invoked the same feeling of wonderment that Conor McGregor vs. Jose Aldo did, in the sense that the moment ended before it even really began. Jones only needs five strikes. Repetition: Only five. After spending more than a decade teasing a heavyweight move, the reality of what that move looked like couldn’t have played out more in his favor.

At this point, it is impossible for me to deny: Jones is the GOAT.

He is greatest fighter mixed martial arts has ever seen.

This is not a place I had in mind for Sunday. I even argued in the lead-up to UFC 285 that, in the event of a Jones win, he’d still have some work left to do before I could vault him over St-Pierre, if only because of his sordid history with PEDs and the fact that Gane isn’t the actual No. 1 heavyweight in the world. But no, I was wrong. This performance? It was amazing how effortless it came about. That was not enough. Jones is now 15-0 in championship bouts — the best mark in UFC history — and just had one of (if not the) strongest outings of his absurdly decorated career, even despite a three-year layoff and the myriad of factors that come into play when you’re entering the cage 40 pounds heavier than ever before.

It’s him. He’s the guy. At least in my eyes, UFC 285 put the debate to rest.

The big question is now how far Jones will be able to put between him and any other pantheon-level, GOAT competitor before he gives up.

If I had to wager, I’d set the over/under for Jones fights we have left at 2. 5 — and I’d pick the under. “Bones” is all about legacy now, which is why UFC 285 made sense regardless of opponent. It was enough for him to tick the UFC heavyweight champ box. This is also the reason Jones wants Stipe Miocic to defend his title. Miocic has the historical baggage that Jones needs.

But what happens after? We’re sorry, wins over Curtis Blaydes or Sergei Pavlovich do not carry the same historical weight. They may be more stylistic matches than in real life, however. I’d be stunned if Jones sticks around long enough to ever fight either man.

That’s why it’ll be an all-time bummer if we don’t get to see Jones vs. Francis Ngannou before this is story is told. After Miocic (and I think this version of Jones destroys a 40-year-old version of Miocic), Ngannou is the only name left with the cache to bolster the GOAT resume in a significant way that Jones is clearly focused on building. The historical ramifications of that fight are simply too great to ignore. UFC president Dana White says a lot of things that end up being untrue, so I’m not too dismayed by his comments this past week dismissing an eventual Ngannou UFC return. If we reach that point and the dollar signs are there, I tend to believe the UFC will bring Ngannou back to print the kind of money a Jones-Ngannou marquee would generate. But if not, and Jones-Ngannou falls by the wayside of history, it’ll forever be heavyweight’s Nurmagomedov-Ferguson in my eyes.

Let’s all hope that cooler heads prevail at the end. The king has returned, as though he had never gone. There are no asterisks attached to the mastery that we have just seen.

2. Man, Valentina Shevchenko is really going to be replaying that missed spinning back kick in her mind for the rest of her life, huh? It was Weidmanesque.

Not since UFC 194 has a division been flipped upside-down in such a seismic manner because of an ill-advised fourth-round spinning strike. But that’s how these things go — one mistake and suddenly one of the greatest eras in women’s MMA history ends with a two-tone PSA on the importance of protecting your skin from the horrors of the sun.

Let’s be clear upfront: Grasso-Shevchenko isn’t Pena-Nunes 1. This was the closest you could get to a mistake in high-level MMA. The former was? No, Alexa Grasso won the stand-up war and forced Shevchenko to resort to her wrestling, then seized upon her opportunity the moment it availed itself, leaving zero doubt about the rightful UFC flyweight champ.

Mexico suddenly has two-and-a-half UFC titleholders (depending on how you view Yair Rodriguez’s belt), and the prospect of holding a Mexico City event featuring two (or all two-and-a-half) of them should’ve rocketed straight to the top of the UFC’s to-do list. We already had a moment like this for something special with UFC Africa and watched it get bungled. These opportunities don’t happen often, and they certainly won’t last forever. If the UFC lets this chance come and go in similar fashion without capitalizing, it’ll be unforgivable promotional malpractice. A layup just fell into your laps, guys. Don’t mess this up.

But the Shevchenko era is also suddenly in the past tense, which is still a bit bizarre to consider.

In retrospect, the signs were there. We spoke about it on our UFC 285 preview show, but Shevchenko’s otherworldly dominance over the years allowed her otherworldly longevity to go largely unnoticed. How long do you think she’s been doing this? You probably underestimated how long she’s been doing this. Shevchenko is on Year 20 of her MMA career. Yes, she made her professional debut in 2003. Below is a list of other women who made pro MMA debuts after hers. All of them are now retired and consider themselves legitimate pioneers.

Fedor’s career was just a few short years before Shevchenko’s.

We’ve seen it time and time again — the hardest thing to do in MMA is defend your title ad nauseam, and Shevchenko did it seven consecutive times. The end comes for everyone eventually, and any cracks we saw in her once-invincible armor against Taila Santos suddenly feel like much less of an aberration or an off night. She may only be 34 years old, but after two decades, Shevchenko is sneaky old in fight years. It’s not surprising that the rematch will be the same as the first one. We’ve seen a change of guard for a while.

If so, “Bullet” is your best friend. It’s almost an impossible feat to be at this level for as long as she has. To be at this for 20 years and still kicking the highest levels of ass? She is truly a unique one.

Erin Blanchfield is the real biggest loser of this entire affair. She suddenly became the odd man out in the eventual Grasso–Shevchenko rematch. There’s no way Blanchfield watched Saturday’s co-main without feeling as if she could’ve replicated the history-making upset Grasso just pulled off. Blanchfield will be allowed to fight (and she is a UFC flyweight champion), but it’s likely she’ll have to defend her No. 1 contender position at least once now while this saga plays out.

The MMA gods can be cruel indeed.

3. What else can be said about Shavkat Rahmonov? This man is Jones-Machida’d Geoff Neal. That was ridiculous. That was absurd. There’s a good chance his impromptu walk-off choke of Neal is going to be the most cold-blooded finish of 2023.

If you’re a season tickets holder to the Shavkat hype train, Saturday was exactly what you wanted to see. Rakhmonov was the shining star in his Chimaev-vs. Burns version — an incandescent prospect that is finally thrown to the dogs and forced to decide whether he can swim or sink. It’s a general rule of thumb in MMA that you can’t be the hammer forever. You can climb up enough to get pushed. UFC 285 was that moment for Rakhmonov. Rakhmonov was tested, pushed and challenged in all the right ways. His striking defense may be alarming but it is official. It is clear in my mind that this is where everything is headed.

I wrote earlier this week that Rakhmonov is actually what most people assume Khamzat Chimaev to be — the reckoning to an old guard at 170 pounds.

I stand by that prediction now more than ever.

This man will be the UFC’s welterweight champion. Sooner rather than later.

4. Speaking of ultra-violent prospects, Saturday’s card featured no shortage of prove-it fights for MMA’s next generation aside from Rakhmonov. The three names under the biggest spotlights were Dricus Du Plessis, Bo Nickal, and Jalin Turner. Two passed with flying colors. And the third? I’d consider to be more of a wait-and-see than an actual failure.

It was a tough lesson for Turner to learn. Mateusz Gamrot is master at turning fights into slogs and making A-level talents look like C-level pretenders who are out of their depth. That’s not what UFC 285 was, though. Turner came out on the wrong side of a split decision, sure, but at no point did he look like he didn’t belong among the lightweight elite. He’s only 27, and even if it continues to blow my mind that he makes 155 pounds with his 6-foot-3 frame, he’s going to be a problem in this division before all is said and done.

As for the two winners, that’s now 5-0 in the UFC with four stoppages for Du Plessis. It may never be pretty any time he fights, but hell, somehow the man gets it done. There isn’t much farther up the middleweight mountain to go after Derek Brunson. Can I perhaps interest you in a dalliance with Paulo Costa or Jared Cannonier next? Either sounds lovely.

Nickal, meanwhile, was a 20-to-1 favorite for a reason, so it’s no surprise he cut through Pickett as easily as he did, even if his win may have been assisted by an unnoticed knee to the nuts. Warning to Jamie Pickett’s Team: It is understandable that you are upset enough to appeal the outcome. It’s just not going to work. This is unfortunately the way things work. Nickal did a great job on the main stage. Now I’m mostly curious to see how fast or slow of an escalation the UFC plots out from here, especially considering Nickal is less than two years into his actual MMA journey. He’s young and has time. It’s not necessary to hurry things up like Alex Pereira. Although patience is not a virtue in the UFC, let’s allow Pereira to get his feet under him before we throw him at the Whittakers and Vettoris of the world.

5. Maybe this is unfair because Cody Garbrandt achieved mission No. 1 by saving his UFC career with a decision over Trevin Jones. The former UFC bantamweight champion needed victory more than anyone. So, why is Garbrandt now so far away from regaining the glory days of his UFC bantamweight champion career?