Khabib Nurmagomedov has named Jon Jones as the pound-for-pound king in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
In his 12-year MMA career, Jones recorded only a single loss, when he suffered a disqualification at The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights Finale in 2009 after launching illegal downward elbows on Matt Hamill.
Since that defeat, the 32-year old has scored 16-straight wins in the UFC, a run that includes winning the light heavyweight championship twice.
Jones, who is regarded by many as the greatest mixed martial artist to set foot in the Octagon, returned to action in December 2018 following a two-year fighting hiatus.
He made short work of Alexander Gustafsson in their rematch at UFC 232 to recapture the 205-pound strap before defending it against Anthony Smith and Thiago Santos respectively.
With this emphatic run, Nurmagomedov believes Jones is ultimately the best pound-for-pound fighter in the competition.
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Latest Rankings
Interestingly, the reigning UFC lightweight champion has overtaken Jones in the latest pound-for-pound rankings across the whole sport as per release by MMA Junkie.
Khabib topped the list while Jones places second as former two-weight champions Henry Cejudo and Daniel Cormier and flyweight GOAT Demetrious Johnson complete the top five.
The bear-wrestling machine from Dagestan has remained undefeated in 28 outings, with his most recent victim being Dustin Poirier in their unification bout at UFC 242 in Saudi Arabia.
Set for his biggest test of his career to date, Nurmagomedov will face Tony Ferguson in April 2020 in what many consider as the most-awaited MMA fight next year.
“I don’t have nothing personal with him, you know?” Khabib said of his next opponent, per SCMP.
“Tony is a great fighter. Honestly, I don’t like him personally. I don’t understand his mind, what is inside his head but I don’t need this.”
“I don’t need this. I’m going to focus on the fight. When the cage closes I’m going to do my job like always.”
In case you missed it, here are the latest pound-for-pound rankings for MMA (courtesy of MMA Junkie):
1.Khabib Nurmagomedov – UFC
2. Jon Jones – UFC
3. Henry Cejudo – UFC
4. Daniel Cormier – UFC
5. Demetrious Johnson – ONE Championship
6. Ryan Bader – Bellator MMA
7. Stipe Miocic- UFC
8. Israel Adesanya – UFC
9. Kamaru Usman – UFC
10. Tony Ferguson – UFC
11. Alexander Volkanovski – UFC
12. Max Holloway – UFC
13. Robert Whittaker – UFC
14. Tyron Woodley – UFC
15. Dustin Poirier – UFC
(Featured Image Source: Instagram/ Jon Jones and Khabib Nurmagomedov)