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. And in this weekend’s return, he did not shrink from his latest monumental moment.
Jones put on a stunning performance in both its dominance and brevity. Walking out to a hero’s welcome back from the cheering crowd at T-Mobile Arena, Jones took the time to soak in the moment, stopping at cageside to hug his father, brothers and fiancee. He stepped inside the cage for the first time in 1,121 days and cartwheeled across the center, just like old times. After being introduced by Bruce Buffer as “the one and only,” Jones showed why those words were not hyperbole.
The fight was not a minute old before Jones had Gane wrapped up and under control, and within another half minute, he had the Frenchman on the canvas. Jones then straddled a seated Gane against the cage, rendering him helpless before sinking in the guillotine choke that made “Jonny Bones” a champion once more.
“Man, I’m so excited,” Jones said after leaping on top of the cage to celebrate, then climbing down to lift up his father and carry him around, both wearing huge smiles. “I’ve been working for this for a long time. A lot of people thought I wouldn’t even be coming back. I’ve been reading it all the time: ‘This dude’s never coming back.’ But I’ve been faithful to my goal.”
Winning the heavyweight championship in the way he did, after a long run of supremacy at light heavy, will reinvigorate the case for him being considered the greatest fighter of all time. Many already consider him the GOAT, but some observers — myself included — have leaned differently because of Jones’ multiple performance-enhancing drug violations. However, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency has since moved the goalposts regarding acceptable levels of some substances, to the point where Jones’ drug test results would not have earned him bans in today’s regulatory environment. Factoring that in, on top of this championship in the sport’s marquee weight class, it’s become challenging to disqualify Jones from GOAT talk.
Along with the discussion over who’s the greatest ever, there’s also the matter of who’s the greatest right now. Saturday’s victory over Gane makes Jones the UFC heavyweight champion, which typically carries the designation of “baddest man on the planet.”
But it’s complicated.
Francis Ngannou, who recently left the UFC after a contract dispute, also has a strong claim, based on his long run of knockouts, including the one over Stipe Miocic that made “The Predator” the champ. However, Ngannou’s final Octagon appearance was a five-round decision over Gane, the same man Jones finished in two minutes. Jones wins that comparison and soon might have another with which we can judge him against Ngannou. The UFC has indicated that Jones’ first title defense will be against Miocic, so let’s see how the new champ performs against the old champion.
At age 35, Jones is bursting with upside.
Of course, there are downsides as well. Just as Jones has always had a way of taking our breath away, he also has made us hold our breath in anticipation of his next instance of bad behavior. Three times he was stripped of his UFC title. He served three suspensions for doping violations, plus one in connection with an arrest following a hit-and-run accident that injured a pregnant woman. Jones has been arrested several times, including on a domestic violence charge and twice for suspicion of driving under the influence. Throughout his career, Jones has shown himself to be a virtuoso in the fine art of self-inflicted career sabotage.
At this point, when a fight card headlined by Jones is getting underway, the arena sound crew should set aside the UFC’s usual “Baba O’Reilly” kickoff. As a public service to fans who continually fall for Jones’ periodic assurances that this time he’s a new, better, grown-up man, the show should open with a different Who song, “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”
But this is not the time to dwell too gloomily on a future potentially soiled by a Jones downfall, even if his shadowy past suggests it is as inevitable as was this weekend’s rise to the top of the heavyweight division. This is a night to stand in awe of Jones’ comeback and his ability to not simply pick up where he left off but to raise his game. Who would have guessed that was possible?
Jones has reestablished himself as a champion among champions. He is indeed the one and only, and for as long as he can keep his balance at the top of the hill with the spotlight shining down on him, the sport of MMA will be richer for his presence.

The comedian stepped to the Netflix stage to clap back at the Smiths, resurrect jokes about Michael Jackson and OJ Simpson, discuss Megan Markle and take aim at some new interpretations of woke culture and victimhood.
“Last thing I need is another mad rapper.”
That was the consistent refrain – and comedic build up- to the mic dropping end of Chris Rock’s live-streamed standup, “Selective Outrage,” which makes Rock the first artist to perform a live streaming Netflix special.
It aired nearly a year to the day after Rock was slapped by Will Smith at the 2022 Oscars, causing international consternation about the role of live comedy, the showcasing of masculinity and the intent versus the impact of a joke. The comedian stepped to the Netflix stage to clap back at the Smiths, resurrect jokes about Michael Jackson and OJ Simpson, discuss Megan Markle and take aim at some new interpretations of woke culture and victimhood. The show, produced by Joel Gallen, tried to take a nation to task – democrat or republican, white or black, rich or poor – on the mental absurdities of selectively complaining, venting, agreeing or disagreeing with any number of hot-button issues.
I knew pretty early those shenanigans were coming when he started off the night with this:
“I’mma try to do a show tonight without offending nobody . You never know who might get triggered. You say the wrong thing. … gotta watch out. You know what people say, words hurt…Anybody who says words hurt has never been punched in the face.”
For the next hour or so, the comedian proceeded to provide reasons for various people to be offended. He showcased his signature narrative style by weaving stories about Elon Musk’s ejaculate, his parenting style with daughter Lola and the financial implications of dating women in their 40s and 50s. He talked of his exwife, the economics of light skin privilege, colorism, interracial dating, Ukraine, a hard to listen to bit about abortion and sex. Lots of oral sex. The running joke was that he was doing a comedy show on Saturday Night. Live. But the real groundbreaking moment here was that Netflix provided a stage and a mic so the world could tune in to possibly see how Rock might, in the words of the playground kids, get his licks back at Will Smith.
Through pointy self-deprecation and double entendre, Rock didn’t disappoint in that aspect. (Though he certainly will have succeeded, should more people view this special, to have freshly pissed off a new contingent of folks who will be justified in their offense.)
“Will Smith practices selective outrage,” Rock said on stage. “Because everybody knows what the f**k happen. Everybody that really knows, knows I had nothing to do with that shit. I didn’t have no entanglements…. She hurt him way more than he hurt me…. And who’s he hit? Me. A [man] he know he can beat…. ”
The commentary about the slap and the Smiths was a full rebuttal of the sort that is best listened to without children within earshot. He made a joke about wanting to watch Will Smith in Emancipation, which streamed on Apple TV, simply because he wanted to watch Smith get whipped by “massa.” Still, it was jarring, given that earlier in the evening he said he didn’t believe in victimhood. Then he ended the evening by saying the whole incident was started by Jada Smith, before he proceeded to call Jada Smith out of her name.
“Nobody was picking on her,” Rock added, also stating that he didn’t fight Will Smith back at the time because his mother taught him not to fight “in front of white people.” But also he added, as many speculated back then, he didn’t hit back because due to his smaller-than-Smith stature he didn’t think he would win a fight with Smith anyway.
Prior to the standup, Rock’s friends gathered for a pre-show to gas him up, to roast him and to show him appreciation. Leslie Jones explained how Rock got her an audition before Lorne Michaels for SNL back in the day. And Arsenio Hall told a nice story about Rock appearing on the Arsenio Hall Show, which was popular in the 1990s. Paul McCartney. Sarah Silverman. Adam Sandler. Ice T. Rosie Perez. All manner of folk saluted Rock in this pre-show warmup hosted , quite adroitly, by host and comedian Ronnie Chieng. [Netflix says the pre-show and the following post-show hosted by David Spade would not be available for viewing after the livestream events.]
It was after that gassing up that Rock, wearing white jeans, a white t-shirt and a white button up accented with a Prince symbol chain, proceeded to own the stage Saturday night. He paced. He smiled, He grimaced. He took up space. He got a standing ovation or two. But he also was met, sometimes, with unsure titters. He brought her name up and called her beautiful and absolutely no one wanted him to make a terrible joke about Beyonce – and he didn’t. But folks held their breath just in case. He spent many long minutes setting up the Musk joke, which is NSFW, so won’t be repeated in this column. He also spent quite some time referencing Michael Jackson’s and R. Kelly’s sexual allegations and charges.
“You know the type of people who play Michael Jackson songs but won’t play R Kelly?” Rock asked the crowd at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre. “Same crime. One of them just got better songs. You play “Wanna be starting something?” Issa party! Play “Bump and Grind,” now you an activist…. Everybody is scared.”
Comics have long lamented that standup is fraught and more difficult nowadays due to shifting pop culture censorship standards. Rock acknowledged those concerns, and as he always does, offset the beginning of each joke by explaining how much he loved every single one of the people he proceeded to roast.
Earlier in the evening he said that one of the things Americans are addicted to is attention, and he talked about social media and the hunt for cheap likes. The night ended with Rock dropping the mic, raising his hands high and soaking in the applause.
I admit I wanted, and was ready, to hear Rock’s rebuttal. I can’t think of a single other comedy show more singularly anticipated due to the possibility of a response to a newsmaking physical altercation on the Oscars telecast. Rock didn’t get to it specifically until the dead end of his one-hour show, for maybe ten minutes. But now a year after the assaults happened, I was surprised at the vehemence of what Rock said and how he explained it. That part of the performance – or testimonial, depending upon how you view this – was gristly and raw. I know some people will say it was inappropriate and wild. Others will say it’s standup, so it will by definition be shocking and wild. Even more will say it is justified given the offense and that Rock didn’t say anything that other folks hadn’t said first. There were moments of the evening where I truly guffawed (when he said he didn’t want to make any other rappers mad,) moments where I shook my head (the colorism jokes specifically) and moments where I was reminded why Rock is one of the best in comedy. We will all be talking about this, and dissecting this, for a long while yet. Perhaps Rock addressed the Smith situation in the best way he knows how. Yet I’m mostly left thinking that the Oscar slap really, really hurt. In more ways than one.

The latest statement of AFAD said that 45,089 people lost their lives while 1,15,000 people were injured in the Turkey earthquake, the UN.
Ankara: The latest statement of AFAD (Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency) said that 45,089 people lost their lives while 1,15,000 people were injured in the Turkey earthquake, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported.
A devastating earthquake of 7.8 on the Richter scale hit Southern Turkiye in the early hours of 6 February (4.17 a.m.), with its epicentre in the Pazarcik district of Kahramanmaras province. The earthquake affected the neighbouring provinces of Adiyaman, Hatay, Kahramanmaras, Kilis, Osmaniye, Gaziantep, Malatya, Sanliurfa, Diyarbakir, Elazig and Adana where about 14 million people reside including about 1,8 million Syrian refugees.
A second major earthquake hit the region after 9 hours with 7.5 magnitudes causing further severe damage and destruction of damaged buildings.
Aftershocks continue after the Kahramanmaras earthquakes. On 20 February, a 6.4 earthquake in Hatay, the epicentre of which was in Defne district, and a 5.6 magnitude earthquake centred in Malatya on 27 February also caused the collapse of many damaged buildings and added to the death toll.
STL published its previous Situation Report on February 28. Below are listed a number of region-wide developments for the period of February 28 to March 3.
According to the ‘2023 Earthquakes Displacement’ report prepared by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a total of 2.7 million people left the disaster area.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has warned of the urgent need for a sustainable short- and long-term response to health, mental health and psychosocial needs in Turkey and Syria to prevent a “second disaster”.
The Minister of National Education of Turkiye announced that 202,817 students affected by the disaster were transferred to other cities.
UNICEF announced that 2.5 million children are in need of urgent humanitarian aid in the disaster zone.
The President of Turkiye announced that 2,14,000 buildings were destroyed and heavily damaged, to be demolished immediately.
UN OCHA mapped the sectors and locations of NGOs operational in the earthquake zone. The organizations that operate in the ten sectors can be accessed via the map.
The Turkish Government reported that a total of 911,942 people affected by the disaster were provided with psychosocial support at 4 mobile social service centres in the provinces of Kahramanmaras, Hatay, Osmaniye and Malatya.
It has been officially announced that the payment of 10,000 Turkish lire per household to the disaster-affected people was made to one million families.
STL continues its emergency response in the disaster area, namely in Hatay, Adiyaman, Kahramanmaras, Diyarbakir and Sanliurfa in the sectors of shelter/NFI, WASH, MHPSS and protection.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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