Jones’ domination of Ciryl Gane put the UFC’s heavyweight division on notice as the newest “baddest man on the planet” looks ready to dominate once again.
It was inevitable that Jon Jones would end up as the heavyweight champion of the world. When Jones choked out Ciryl Gane in just 2 minutes and 4 seconds on Saturday in Las Vegas to capture the vacant UFC belt, it fulfilled a prophecy — right? Long ago, a foreshadowing began that Jones was bigger than light heavyweights could handle.
Jones’ larger-than-life supremacy was evident when he first stepped into the Octagon nearly 15 years ago and began tossing around his fellow 205-pounders, including a long line of former champions and future Hall of Famers. He stood taller than almost all matched against him, and his wingspan stretched to inescapable lengths. Jones’s fights often looked like matchups of athletes from different weight classes.
This weekend at UFC 285, though, Jones picked on somebody his own size — or at least very close to it. Jones weighed in the day before at 248 pounds, a half pound more than Gane, a career-long heavyweight. That meant Jones, returning to the cage after three years away from the sport, was 43 pounds heavier than the weight at which he had stepped on the scale before all of his record 11 title defenses in the 205-pound division. It was like he was a whole new man.
If the pay-per-view is purchased, all fights from UFC 285: Jones vs. Gane will be available to watch on ESPN+.
• Ciryl Gane vs. Jon Jones
• Valentina Shevchenko vs. Alexa Grasso
• Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Geoff Neal
• Mateusz Gamrot vs. Jalin Turner
• Bo Nickal vs. Jamie Pickett
• Cody Garbrandt vs. Trevin Jones
• Derek Brunson vs. Dricus Du Plessis
• Viviane Araujo vs. Amanda Ribas
• Julian Marquez vs. Marc-Andre Barriault
• Ian Garry vs. Song Kenan
• Mana Martinez vs. Cameron Saaiman
• Jessica Penne vs. Tabatha Ricci
• Da’Mon Blackshear vs. Farid Basharat
• Esteban Ribovics vs. Loik Radzhabov
Watch the complete card on ESPN+ PPV
And yet one thing about Jones has not changed. The measure of his immensity at 205 pounds has never been confined to his physical stature. He has always expressed it even more emphatically in a metaphorical sense, how he seizes upon big moments and thrives within them. The swagger of Jones was and still is massive enough to swallow up the whole sport.
