TORONTO — The kudos keep coming for Jon (Bones) Jones.
The UFC’s youngest ever champion defended his light-heavyweight crown for the first time Saturday, dominating former title-holder Quinton (Rampage) Jackson to win by fourth-round submission at UFC 135 in Denver.
In a well-stocked weight class that has seen champions come and go in recent years, Jones (14-1) is seen by many as the mixed martial arts fighter with the skills to lord over the UFC’s 205-pounders for a long time.
And his boss, UFC president Dana White, sees an even brighter future.
“He is nasty and only 24,” White tweeted after the main event at the Pepsi Center.
“If he keeps his head together he could be the best ever.”
At 33, Jackson may not be the fighter he once was, although he still packs a wallop. But he was unable to breach Jones’ defence.
FightMetric, which tracks fight statistics, had the champion holding a 61-16 edge in significant strikes (16-3 in the first round alone).
“I think it’s his time now, it’s his era,” bantamweight contender Demetrious (Mighty Mouse) Johnson said of Jones.
“He’s always learning, he’s always very humble. I think it’s very hard to beat somebody like that.”
At six foot four with an enormous wingspan, Jones is also hard to reach.
He is a former junior college champion wrestler with a startling, often unorthodox, array of kicks and strikes. Whenever Jackson tried to close the distance, Jones flicked a foot at his knee or lashed out his leg. When the two grappled on the fence, Jones was like a human buzzsaw, connecting with elbows and fists.
“Jon Jones is showing what you need to have to be a dominant champion,” said bantamweight title-holder Dominick (The Dominator) Cruz.
“He’s going out there and he’s keeping people guessing from Round 1 to Round 5.
“He never comes out the same way, he never throws the same combination, it’s always switching it up. And he’s always threatening.”
White includes Jones in his top three of pound-for-pound fighters: ranking him third after middleweight (185-pound) champion Anderson Silva and welterweight (170 pound) title-holder Georges St-Pierre of Montreal.
“Bones Jones u r the real deal and top 3 P4P in the world!!,” an enthusiastic White said via Twitter.
Johnson, who meets Cruz for the 135-pound title on Saturday on a televised card in Washington, D.C., points to his elite list of Silva, Jones and featherweight champion Jose Aldo.
“They’re trying to kill you, they don’t care what it takes,” he said. “They’re going to finish you. And those guys, it’s just their era right now where they’re just unbeatable. And I don’t see anybody beating those guys in a very long time.”
Heavyweight Pat Barry, while noting anyone get beaten in mixed martial arts, believes that Jones, like Silva, has the “Mike Tyson effect.”
“Someone has to get in the ring and not be afraid of them ... His last few fights, you see guys get in the ring with Jon Jones and they know it, you can just see in their body language, (they’re thinking) ’At some point in time he’s going to do something ridiculous that I can’t identify and something’s going to hit me and I’m going to wake up later on,”’ Barry said.
“The guy can fight you anywhere, he can take you anywhere. But he’s also developed this reputation and this aura about him that’s just really intimidating.”
Dutch heavyweight Stefan (Skyscraper) Struve, who fights Barry on Saturday, pointed to Jones’ use of reach and ample arsenal against Jackson.
Bantamweight contender Demetrious Johnson thought Jones was “playing with” Jackson and could have finished him earlier had he wanted
So who can beat him?
Cruz says it will take someone with “great striking fundamentals in the sense of defence,” who can check a variety of kicks. They will need great boxing, to use their hands to pressure Jones and to be able to close the distance.
Plus, the ideal challenger will need great wrestling, to disrupt his rhythm and tire him out.
“The only way to beat Jon Jones in my opinion is to put him on his back. ... if you don’t out that guy on his back he gets a good rhythm and he gets good comfort on his feet — and he uses his range so well that you can’t really keep him off balance.”
Cruz concluded: “A great boxer with kickboxing fundamentals of defence will give him hell, in my opinion, with takedowns (in his arsenal).”
Added Barry: “You have to get in there and just go at him, like fearlessly.”
Struve says the ideal opponent may be “someone who’s not afraid to strike with him and not afraid to end up on his back, a really good Brazilian jiu-jitsu guy maybe.
“That may be the key to beat him. Someone with great leglocks. He’s got long legs,” said the six-foot-11 Struve sounding somewhat less than convinced.
“It’s been really impressive what he’s showed so far,” he added.
Next up for Jones is another former champion in Rashad Evans.
“It’s going to be really interesting because I think Rashad’s a lot quicker than him,” said Struve.
Jones didn’t make his pro debut until April 2008, winning his first six fights in three months before making his UFC debut at UFC 87 that August.
His lone loss was via disqualification to Matt Hamill in December 2009, when he was penalized for a downward elbow strike. Hamill, who took a beating in the fight, required shoulder surgery after the win.
Jones won the title in March at UFC 128, filling in for the injured Evans, when he dismantled former Pride star Mauricio (Shogun) Rua en route to a third-round TKO. A hand injury kept him out of action until the weekend.