When UFC fighters appear on ESPN’s “First Take,” you never know what kind of ridiculous things might be said or asked. It comes with the territory given that Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman, the show’s talking heads, only loosely follow MMA.
On Wednesday’s episode, UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones made an appearance to promote UFC 247 and, as you might expect, the line of questioning extended beyond his upcoming title fight against Dominick Reyes. Jones’ overall greatness was discussed, specifically how it compares to Conor McGregor and UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Smith acknowledged Jones as being one of the all-time great fighters but wondered how Jones felt about “being box office” in addition to a great fighter like McGregor and, to a lesser extent, Nurmagomedov have proven to be. Jones didn’t seem to care much about that.
“It’s about being the guy that people are gonna be talking about 50, a hundred years from now. That’s really what gets me out of bed in the morning,” Jones said. “At the end of the day, no disrespect to Conor because I love what he’s doing for our sport, I don’t think he’s gonna be in the conversation when people are sitting around at a barber shop talking about the greatest martial artists in the world.”
Then came Kellerman, which is where things could’ve gone off the rails but didn’t. This was his question:
“If someone asked me, Jon, straight up: ‘Who’s the best pound-for-pound mixed martial artist you’ve ever seen?’ At this moment, and I know it’s still early, I’d say Nurmagomedov based on what I’ve seen so far. … What do you think of Khabib right now?”
Jones couldn’t help himself. He laughed the moment “Nurmagomedov” came out of Kellerman’s mouth but also was respectful with his answer.
“I think Khabib’s an amazing fighter. I think he’s done a great job representing the UFC. He’s a great ambassador for our sport. But if you were to ask some MMA experts about myself and Khabib, I think most people would be able to tell our resumes are completely different. So many world champions under my belt that I’ve defeated. Khabib, a lot of his victories are against a lot of people that are relatively unknown, (whereas) I’ve been fighting legends since I was a young man in my early 20s.”
Kellerman, though, clarified what he meant.
“I don’t mean who’s more accomplished. I’m talking about just the eyeball test.”
Jones needed more clarification.
“What do you mean by that? Eyeball test?”
This is what Kellerman was getting at:
“Nurmagomedov in a sport where it seemed early on that the one whose base is the ground game usually has the advantage vs. the guy who’s best known for striking is the best example I could think of the guy whose ground game is ridiculous and then could also stand up.”
Jones’ response?
“Right. Yeah, his stand-up game is really not much to write home about. I really don’t want to insult my fellow martial artists. I don’t want to insult these guys. I’m happy for everyone. Like I said, some guys are more popular. Some guys make more money. It’s always gonna be kind of an opinion thing, but by the time I leave this sport I don’t think there’s gonna be much of an argument.”
Here’s video of the exchange:
Listen, Khabib is a great fighter, but there’s a reason he only landed at No. 8 on MMA Junkie’s top fighters of the decade despite being undefeated at 28-0. He’s an all-time great but isn’t in the GOAT discussion. For Kellerman to suggest he’s the actual GOAT is, well … it’s off. That’s why Jones laughed, but he also knew he wasn’t talking to an MMA expert, so he gave a good, measured answer.
Good thing, too. We just got through an exhausting two weeks of debate about Stephen A.’s involvement in ESPN’s coverage of the UFC after his terrible opinion of Donald Cerrone had the MMA community raging.
I don’t know how much more of this I can take.
The Blue Corner is MMA Junkie’s blog space. We don’t take it overly serious, and neither should you. If you come complaining to us that something you read here is not hard-hitting news, expect to have the previous sentence repeated in ALL CAPS.
