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UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones recently suggested the possibility of not only fighting Stipe Miocic at Madison Square Garden in his home state of New York, but also potentially retiring from mixed martial arts with a win.
How cool would it be to spend my retirement fight dominating the greatest heavyweight of all time, in my home state at Madison Square Garden?
— BONY (@JonnyBones) April 16, 2023
He would later jokingly backtrack after a fan told him to chill and postpone retirement for the time being. But with that said, retiring in those circumstances makes plenty of sense for Jones. And so, here are three reasons why Jon Jones would be absolutely right to retire from the game with a potential win over Stipe Miocic.
Jon Jones would have nothing more to prove
Jon Jones is already regarded by many as the MMA GOAT. That was the case even before he returned after three years to make his heavyweight debut and become a two-weight champion against Ciryl Gane earlier this year. The only real argument against “Bones” is his failed drug tests and while that is not an easy thing to ignore, Jones being the GOAT would pretty much be a unanimous opinion if not for that.
He still remains the youngest UFC champion in history doing so at the age of 23, has never actually suffered a defeat (his one loss was because of a disqualification), he has the most wins in UFC title fights with 15, and if it's that not enough, his resume speaks for itself with numerous wins over UFC champions such as Daniel Cormier, Vitor Belfort, Mauricio ‘Shogun' Rua, Lyoto Machida, Quinton ‘Rampage' Jackson, Rashad Evans and more.
Jones could retire right now and have an extremely strong claim. However, there's something about being able to defend your belt — after all, it's a huge reason why we usually never see Conor McGregor on any GOAT list as he's never defended any of his titles. Jones has defended his light heavyweight title a number of times — 11 in total — but to successfully defend the heavyweight title against arguably the greatest heavyweight of all time in Miocic? There would quite simply be nothing else for Jones to prove after that and just like he suggested, no better way to retire either.
Jon Jones won't gain much from fighting names like Sergei Pavlovich
Of course, Jones could still keep fighting for a number of years should he defeat Miocic. But who could he face after? The likeliest opponent would be Sergei Pavlovich, a Russian brawler who recently made it six first-round finishes in a row against Curtis Blaydes this past weekend at UFC Vegas 71. It could be an interesting fight, but the odds would still heavily favor Jones.
Not to mention, Pavlovich is not a big name by any means whatsoever. Other than a rematch with Gane way down the line, other potential opponents include Blaydes, Tom Aspinall, Tai Tuivasa and Alexander Volkov. Other than maybe Aspinall, not exciting by any means as the heavyweight division is not in the best state right now. We all saw how poor Jones looked in his light heavyweight wins over Anthony Smith, Thiago Santos and Dominick Reyes. Jones even admitted he lacked motivation for those fights as his opponents were unknown to the public while he didn't have any fear of them either.
In that same light, would he even be motivated to fight anyone else at heavyweight? Would it even be close to the level of motivation he has for beating Miocic? Highly unlikely. There are no major records to chase or improve on after Miocic either. No fighter is likely to beat his current 19-fight unbeaten record in the UFC while no male fighter will come close to his current record of 15 UFC title fight wins. If Jones defeats Miocic, he would have the most UFC title defenses in history with 12 which nobody is likely to beat either. So unless he needs the money, there really is no need for Jones to continue fighting.
Jon Jones can retire while on top and healthy
The best fighters always retire on top while having all their faculties intact. Former UFC welterweight king — and the only real competition to Jones in terms of being the GOAT of MMA — Georges St-Pierre is a prime example of this as he retired as a champion. Former unified heavyweight boxing champion Lennox Lewis also retired as a champion while Floyd Mayweather called it a day professionally in 2017 without suffering a single defeat. But at the same time, this is also very rare.
Far too often, we have seen legends in combat sports retire only after going on a losing streak or after suffering a number of knockout defeats. Jones has never been knocked down, let alone been knocked out. But he has taken a lot of cumulative damage over the course of his MMA career. Why risk any further damage or even a defeat down the line when he could retire on top as the undisputed GOAT without a single real loss on his record?
Jones has never competed at Madison Square Garden either. A potential win over Miocic in a retirement fight at the World's Most Famous Arena in front of his home state fans would not only be cool — it'd be a fairytale ending to his career.
