Love him or hate him, Jon "Bones" Jones is an absolute beast. Coming off of his impressive win over Daniel Cormier at UFC 182, one of the main talking points surrounding Jon Jones was his place in history and his desire to become known as the greatest mixed martial arts fighter of all-time. In the post-fight press conference he admitted that he was willing to concede the honor to Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva, but that he hopes to have surpassed them by the end of 2015. He's just being humble--a rarity for Jon Jones--because he's already the greatest of all-time. Who is truly the best ever is a hotly and often debated topic among MMA fans. A convincing case can only be made for a handful of guys, but depending on the criteria you're using to evaluate them the list of potential candidates shrinks even smaller. So other than "Bones", who could make a claim for greatest fighter ever? Anderson Silva - Probably the most popular choice among fans for the honor, and while his dominance inside the octagon has been a beautiful display of artistic violence and his skillset is otherworldy, when you stack him up next to Jones he falls just a bit short, mainly due to the quality of opposition comparisons. Georges St. Pierre - GSP had an incredible run in MMA, and if he decides to never return, his legacy will be that of one of the 2 or 3 best to ever step in the cage. But what hurts his shot at being the GOAT is his inability to finish his opponents. The last 7 fights of his remarkable title reign were all decision victories, many of which he did very little damage in, just outgrinding them for the win. And it's frustrating to fans because we know how much better than everyone else he is, he just can't seem to find ways to stop guys. Fedor Emelianenko - For fans who've been following the sport for a long time, a serious argument can be made for the former Pride kingpin. The Russian heavyweight amassed an incredible 27 straight victories (with one no contest during that span) while fighting in Japan's fabled organization. But a decent portion of that was against questionable competition, and his three straight losses to Fabricio Werdum, Antonio Silva and Dan Henderson have really damaged his standing among the greats. Which leaves us with the current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion. Here's 5 reasons why he's already the greatest mixed martial arts fighter of all-time.
Brad Hamilton is a writer, musician and marketer/social media manager from Atlanta, Georgia. He's an undefeated freestyle rap battle champion, spends too little time being productive and defines himself as the literary version of Brock Lesnar.
