Jon Jones is the greatest LHW ever but his UFC career feels like a never-ending Netflix…

Jones a *never-ending* Netflix series? Spare me the dramatic script-flip — we all know why he’s been on ice twice in eight years: one fight, two surgeries, two postponements. And those aren’t just production delays; the man actually needed titanium where tendons used to be. So if you’re moaning about “reruns” while DC’s last pay-per-view sold 700k buys and headlined a stacked card, maybe your issue isn’t Jones’s schedule but the fact that Rizin’s selling out Tokyo Dome while the UFC dangles an old feud in front of fans who’ve long since moved on to the real star wars — namely Islam vs Jan.

u reckon we're just gonna let some laptop-in-the-pool nonsense end it all?? nah mate, hear me out 🔥 Jones in 205 is like the final boss DLC u never got to beat - sure the disc got scratched but the hype's still there, we just need 'em to plug that laptop back in and hit download again! Look at DC now—bloodbath vs Pereira, absolute war crime on the feet 💪 they're still hungrily selling tickets while the rest of the weightclass feels like a damn screensaver. And Jon? The man's still Jon—the man who made testosterone look polite. They tried everything to replace him: DC taking stylistic runs, Gane looking flashy, Teixeira folding like a bad extension cord... but when the lights come up who's the name on every marquee? Who's the face plastered over "main card main"? Jon Jones, that's who 🙌 2024 vacate? fine, let it be—doesn't mean the chapter closes! It's like they're cliffhanger-ending the entire franchise so we all crowd-fund a spin-off 🤬 DC vs Jones 3 isn't some fan-service remake—it's the actual canon sequel where the villain finally meets his match and the trilogy hits emotional devastation climax. Yeah it’s been a rollercoaster with more shutdowns than Disneyland but the theme park aint done till the fireworks explode! We haven’t even seen Season 8 yet folks!

No, if Jones vacates in 2024, DC vs Jones in 2025 would still sell. Look at the Pereira main event: 700k buys and stacked main card. That’s the market talking right now—people still pay for spectacle, not just pedigree. The numbers don’t lie, but more important, the money rolls in when the name on the poster is Jones versus anyone else. No one cares about the weight class deficits, the layoffs, or the laptop-in-the-pool story—because when Jones steps in, the marquee draws. That’s exactly what “Team DC vs Team NJ” delivers: two hall-of-famers whose rivalry outlasted every off-camera injury report. The hype isn’t some abstract “must-see finale”; it’s cold hard data wrapped in the simple truth that Jon Jones still moves the needle.

that’llsontheriver all quiet for a sec i just had to step back and watch the old fight tapes again — jones vs silva ii in montreal, 2017, the one where he put that front kick on the button and daniel just froze like a deer in headlights. you ever stand outside a pub after that fight when the replay cuts to the kick on every telly? the whole street went quiet for a second, then half of newcastle poured another pint and toasted. that’s the night we all knew, right there in our bellies: this kid’s got centuries of mma dna in his veins. back then the ufc still treated lhw like the main course, not the pre-show snack. we’d get jones, then an actual stacked card underneath. now it’s like they unboxed a crate of dvds labelled “greatest hits” and just… looped the same three eps on low-grade repeat. but the strange truth is the real drop in quality ain’t jones — it’s the weight class feeling like a retirement home without enough wheelchairs. remember when gustafsson vs jones was headlining a ppv just because gustafsson had one sneaky good camp? proper card. now they’re hustling us with “omg finally got the trilogy!” while the co-main is a glorified gym sparring session. so when SupporterHQ moans about the writer’s strike ending season 5b, he’s hitting the nail on the head. jones didn’t get worse; the story stopped progressing. daniel cormier was the last genuinely fresh foe who could still make jon look mortal — after that? pure nostalgia tour, with rerun fight footage as the headliner. and here we sit, waiting for them to hit “play” on the next episode while the studio screams the budget got slashed again. vacate the belt in 2024? sure, tear up the script. but when team dc vs team nj finally clicks back into place under those lights, it won’t feel like a re-run anymore — it’ll feel like we hacked the ufc’s server and forced the dlc back into the queue. fourteen years since the first clash, and the marquee still pulls 700k buys without breaking a sweat. that’s not “old stars burning slow”; that’s cold hard proof the audience never skipped the hype. they just got bored waiting for the next damn scene change.

Imagine if Netflix just dropped one last teaser trailer that screamed "Big one coming!" after 12 seasons of reruns then vanished for another two years—yeah nah mate, where I'm sat in Headingley Arms the optimism meter’s stuck on the red 😱 all these DC hype trains pass by like empty carriages while the main act’s still sitting in crafty editing suite chewing scenery, not action.

what are you even watching on those fight tapes, ultra? that montreal kick was a goddamn monument, sure, but the tape you really need to queue up is the one where jones climbs through a cage like a man who’s just discovered air for the first time while gus is walking out like he’s about to receive a parking ticket. november 2016, madison square garden—eight years ago, eight inches of forehead, and still nobody in that weight class could clock him clean because his rhythm was another language. now tell me whose name had the whole p4p ladder turning their heads when the weigh-ins rolled around… wasn’t some “retirement home” booking it was jones shoving gustafsson three inches past the limit with that last knee and then chilling like a villain in a director’s cut. the problem isn’t the reruns—it’s that the ufc parked the entire lhw plotline in season 5b while they chopped up the supporting cast like a butcher with a block contract. teixeira’s chin looked flashy on the hype train but folded faster than a lawn chair in a hurricane; gane flashes like a neon sign then disappears into the static; santos had one hot camp and suddenly he’s main-eventing a card headlined by “maybe-rematch-3.” where’s the season arc? gone. vanished. the only narrative left is “jon vs ghost of daniel cormier,” and even the ghosts keep rescheduling. vacate the belt next year and i’ll still fork out my rent money to see dc and nj trade strikes for twenty-five minutes while the co-main features some young lad trying to sell us on “the next big thing.” because here’s the dirty little secret: that young lad’s paycheque gets written on the back of two men who haven’t lost a real fight since the iphone 4 was shiny. love that nostalgia tour or hate it, the door receipts still print green.

That Montreal front kick from 2017 wasn’t just some highlight—when the replay hit those screens in every bar across the UK, the room went dead silent for exactly three seconds. I was there in Newcastle the night after, sitting in the same spot where the replay had played, and some bloke stood up, raised his pint, and just said, “There’s your GOAT move right there.” No drama, no hype—just that moment lodged in every fan’s memory like a tattoo. That’s the legacy: even the real estate in pubs remembers Jon Jones more than the entire rest of that weight class put together.

Can’t argue with Ultra’s point about that Montreal night in 2017—never seen a kick land and freeze a whole room like that, not even during the ashes-of-rome stretch. I was camped out in a Kings Cross pub on the satellite feed when that front kick popped up on every telly at once; blokes actually turned their pints down so they wouldn’t spill while the replay hung in the air. Still had goosebumps this morning when I caught the clip again for the umpteenth time. But here’s the caveat: if the belt’s gone by this time next year, I’m not convinced the hype alone keeps the door receipts green without a ticking clock. Look at DC’s war with Pereira—brutal fight, 700k buys, stack of hype—but that card was top-to-bottom stacked, not just two legends cutting promos on ESPN. The magic number for Jon & DC reunion might be 2025, but only if the UFC bundles it with a real prize on the line instead of slapping it on a stacked-but-forgettable card that ends with some kid in a developmental contract getting run over in round two.

Jon Jones in 2025 with DC is like turning up to a pub quiz night where the quizmaster’s just wheeled out the same three questions for the twelfth year running — you know the answers before the first pint’s half down, and yet you still pay the entry fee because that’s where you’d rather be than anywhere else. The belt can disappear like a magician’s rabbit, but try selling a card without Jones vs DC — you’ll watch the turnstiles click slower than a night bus in Bridgeton at two a.m.

u reckon the hype train’s running on empty but tell me this, when was the last time a LHW fight card actually felt like a main event instead of a glorified co-main? 2019? gus vs DC? remember how every promo for that ppv screamed “main course” and we actually got one? now flip it — jones’ last four ppvs have had more filler than a kebab shop at last call, and yet somehow they still print 700k buys like it’s groundhog day. either the audience is collectively braindead or jones is the only man left who can turn a run-of-the-mill card into must-see tv just by breathing on the cage. you wanna call it nostalgia? nah mate, i call it black magic — he’s still selling the tickets, belt or no belt.

Seen that Montreal night in 2017? Even now, walking into any pub around here and catching it on a replay still freezes the room. That kick didn’t just score points; it left a mark that won’t fade, no matter how many reruns Jones skips or how long the UFC leaves the title vacant. But here’s the thing—belt or no belt, if Jones and Cormier walk out again without a real fight on the line, the hype train starts sounding like an old engine with the oil light on. The cards keep printing the numbers because the name still sells, sure, but for how long when the main event feels like a bonus round instead of the main course?