“He is the GOAT!” - Joe Rogan certifies Jon Jones while revealing the real reason behind the fighters picking up short-notice bouts

Jon Jones has been in the world of MMA for more than 16 years now. With an MMA stat of 28-1-0, his only defeat came from the bout against Matt Hamill at the Ultimate Fighter 10 finale. The reigning heavyweight champion is also the pound-for-pound ranked No. 2 fighter. In a recent podcast, Joe Rogan, while talking to Ron White, talks about the intense training sessions fighters go through and why Jon Jones is the GOAT for handling the race to be one of the greatest fighters of all time without accepting fights on short notice.
UFC commentator and podcaster Joe Rogan talks on a variety of topics and has a special appreciation for MMA in his conversations. In one such talk with Ron White, the commentator talked about the rigorous physical routines that fighters have to go through to fit into a weight division as well as to achieve a peak required to fight in the cage. This sometimes even leads to the fighter withdrawing from a scheduled bout, owing to certain physical constraints that arise. Rogan emphasized the insane physical training that the fighters go through by citing the example of Khamzat Chimaev, who was diagnosed with COVID-19 and still continued to train.
“They are too tough for their own good. So one of these guys got COVID. This guy Khamzat Chimaev. And this *********** is a psychopath. He is a savage…He trains like 8 hours a day. He trains like Wolverine. He is an animal and he was training with covid and he kept getting really sick. Ended up getting hospitalised, coughing up blood. Gets out, goes right back to it. Same thing. He got hospitalised twice, because he wouldn’t stop training.”

While fighters make their bodies go through all the constraints in order to achieve the peak level, trainers often back off the athletes once they observe that the fighters are peaking too early. However, the fact that this point cannot be maintained for too long becomes a major reason for the fighters to pick up fights on very short notice. Rogan, for this very reason, claims Jon Jones is the smartest one out there because of his calculated decision to go a full camp before picking up any fight.
“To this day, everybody says he’s the GOAT. Well, why is he the GOAT? Coz he did everything the right way. Jon Jones is the smartest. Jon Jones never did that. They changed opponents? ‘F*ck you , fight’s off'.”
Rogan brought up the controversial UFC 151 cancellation, the first ever bout to be cancelled by the promotion, when Jones was scheduled to face Dan Henderson in order to defend his title. However, a last-minute injury suffered by Henderson led to the proposal to replace him with Chael Sonnen. This was one of the most shocking moments, as Jones refused to accept the offer, even if it would have been an easy win for the fighter. He decided to undergo a full camp before finally facing Sonnen at UFC 159.
Rogan also acknowledged the fact that there was a time in Jones’ career when he did everything wrong, yet surpassed every other fighter that he faced. The podcaster highlights one of the iconic trash talk lines that were exchanged between Jones and Daniel Cormier ahead of their rematch bout, when the former said, “I beat you when I was on Coke!”
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Jon Jones is undoubtedly one of the greatest fighters of all time. Popularly known as The Bones, he is the youngest fighter in UFC history to win a title bout over Maurício Rua at the age of 23.