Outside Source
UFC President and CEO Dana White has often stated that he feels Jon Jones is the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. He has stuck to that notion so strongly that he has tried on multiple occasions to get Jones’ disqualification loss to Matt Hamill overturned to a no contest. His reasoning is that Jones should have finished the fight before the illegal strikes landed, and that referee Steve Mazzagatti failed to intervene when he should have stepped in. The argument was also made that since 12-to-6 elbows have been legalized, past fights ending via those strikes should be changed ex post facto.
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The top spot on White’s MMA all-timer pedestal may be changing depending on upcoming events, according to him in an interview with Forbes on Friday. The organizer went on to declare that should Alex Pereira beat Ciryl Gane to claim the interim heavyweight belt on June 14’s UFC White House card, he will have done something no one in the UFC has accomplished: win a title in three separate divisions. This kind of achievement, according to White, is one that could make “Poatan” the greatest fighter to have stepped in a cage.
Greatest of all time
“You got Pereira possibly winning his third world title,” White expressed with excitement. “If he wins the third world title that night, he jumps over Jon Jones and becomes the greatest of all time.”
“Poatan” already achieved history by shattering the record for the fewest UFC bouts to win not one but two titles. Pereira picked up his first from Israel Adesanya at 185 pounds, dropped it in the rematch and moved up to light heavyweight to punch out Jiri Prochazka and claim that throne as well. He has since vacated that strap to move up to the largest weight class to try to become a champ there.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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