It’s hard to argue against Tom Aspinall, Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou vying for the top spot as the best heavyweight in the sport but who is actually the top fighter in that division right now?
Veteran analyst Dan Hardy admits it’s a much tougher question to answer than you might think, especially when factoring in the unique skills each one brings into a fight. While Jones currently holds the “undisputed” UFC heavyweight title following wins over Ciryl Gane and Stipe Miocic, Hardy argues that his overall greatness can’t be questions but his status as the best fighter in the division definitely deserves to be scrutinized.
“I think Jon Jones is the pound-for-pound best,” Hardy explained when speaking to MMA Fighting. “I think he’s the best representation of mixed martial arts generally that we’ve ever seen. I think he’s still evolving, which is terrifying. But is he the best current heavyweight on the planet? I don’t think so.
“I think the winner of Aspinall versus Ngannou would be the answer … no disrespect in any way to Jon. Current heavyweight champion but not the current best heavyweight on the planet. Certainly not.”
As good as Jones has been throughout his career, he’s only spent two fights at heavyweight and Hardy knows that fighters like Aspinall and Ngannou present problems he just hasn’t dealt with yet since changing divisions.
Hardy believes both Aspinall and Ngannou possess a particular set of skills that make them uniquely difficult puzzles to solve at heavyweight, which is why he puts them at the top of his personal rankings.
“You play those three fights out in any different order, in any different scenario, whether it’s the octagon or the SmartCage or a boxing ring or whatever, they play out differently every time,” Hardy said. “The reality is Tom Aspinall is the fastest out of all three of them. That makes him very, very dangerous at heavyweight because speed kills at heavyweight.
“The big difference when athletes started to enter the heavyweight division, the likes of Andrei Arlovski back in the day, you look at those guys and they look like a welterweight that’s blown up in size in all the right proportions. That’s what’s scary about Tom Aspinall. What was he on the scale? 254 [pounds]? He’s right at the top end of the heavyweight division with no fat on him. You can say the same thing for Francis Ngannou. So physical specimens, I would say Jon Jones is bottom of the rung.”
That said, Hardy credits Jones for his immense amount of experience and fight IQ but sometimes even that isn’t enough when dealing with a fast, powerful heavyweight like Aspinall or a human wrecking machine such as Ngannou, who can put anybody’s lights out with a single punch.
“The creativity of Jon Jones and the wisdom, the fight IQ, that reigns supreme,” Hardy said. “I just wonder if he’s got that ability in the heavyweight division with someone as fast as Tom Aspinall and someone as powerful as Francis Ngannou. There were times when Stipe [Miocic] landed [on Jones at UFC 309] and I think if Ngannou lands those shots, Jon Jones doesn’t get back up.
“I also think the speed of Tom Aspinall would allow him to land punches against Jon Jones and Ngannou that both of those guys wouldn’t see coming and wouldn’t be able to stop. The question is would he be able to do that kind of damage to knock them out. I don’t know. I’ve seen Francis take some big shots. I know obviously he got knocked out by Anthony Joshua but at the same time, you’re talking of an elite level boxer who’s an incredible athlete at the same time. I mean, it’s just so difficult to pick one.”
While there’s still a chance that Aspinall could face Jones in the future to at least answer one of those questions, Ngannou remains the odd man out because he fights in the PFL.
After demolishing Renan Ferreira in October, Ngannou is once again without a clear cut choice for his next opponent with no telling who he might face next.
Ngannou could potentially face the winner of the upcoming 2024 PFL Championship when 19-1 Russian Oleg Popov takes on Denis Goltsov but it’s safe to say either of them would be a sizable underdog going against “The Predator.”
Hardy understands the argument working against Ngannou when it comes to level of competition but he hopes PFL continues to seek out the kind of talent that allows the company’s biggest free agent signing in history to at least maintain a stranglehold on the top of the heavyweight division.
“That is a real challenge and that’s above my pay grade with me just being the head of fighter ops for Europe,” Hardy said about Ngannou’s next opponent. “Obviously the heavyweight championship we have coming up is going to determine a contender. We’ve also got the likes of [Vadim] Nemkov in the heavyweight division that could be a very interesting problem.
“‘Reug Reug’ [Oumar Kane] called Ngannou out, that would be an interesting cross-promotion with ONE Championship and that’s me speaking as a fan. I don’t make those calls but if it was up to me, I would be open to a ‘Reug Reug’ crossover fight, especially if we could hold it in Africa. That would be incredible.”
“I’ll let you know what UFC stands – Jon has two choices: You fight Tom or you do not fight,” Sonnen said. “There is nobody else is going to be offered. In fact, we’ve got a name that came off the board (of possibilities) in terms of Alex Pereira.
“Dana put that to absolute rest, and when the oddsmakers put it as a 6-to-1 spread favoring Jones, that fight is gone. So Jon can sit out and not fight – that’s true. But he’s not going to be in a spot where he could fight someone else. It’s basically retire, (or) it’s fight Tom Aspinall.”
Jones recently took to his ‘X’ account to dangle the possibility of vacating his heavyweight gold before walking away from the sport of MMA. Whether or not that means he retires without facing Aspinall remains to be seen. “Bones” has shared his belief that if he doesn’t fight again, Aspinall will eventually fizzle out and people will forget about the fight never taking place.