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Frankie Edgar: “Jon Jones Should Be Fighting Anybody He Really Wants at This Point” | 5thRound.com – UFC News, Strikeforce and MMA News, UFC 117 Play-by-Play Results

Frankie Edgar: “Jon Jones Should Be Fighting Anybody He Really Wants at This Point”
Written by Tom Ngo
August 3rd, 2010


While MMA fans continue to debate the awesomeness that is Jon Jones, there are really only a handful of people that can speak on the 23-year-old’s ridiculous skills. You can either ask any of his previous 11 victims, 12 if you include Matt Hamill before he nabbed a controversial disqualification win to hand Jones his only pro blemish, or one of his talented training partners like UFC lightweight king Frankie Edgar.

We decided to choose the latter.

“Absolutely, I think it’s been justified,” the champ told 5thRound.com of the unprecedented hype Jones has received. “He performs day-in and day-out. Not only is he winning fights, but he’s winning them devastatingly.”

Oh yeah, did we forget to mention Edgar – who has been in the trenches preparing for his UFC 118 rematch with BJ Penn on August 28th – hadn’t even seen Sunday night’s performance before boasting about his teammate. Although he fully intends to zip through his DVR later this evening, more so to support his boy than to seek vindication for his claims, Edgar knows the youngster’s time will come.

“I’m sure they want to see he’s mature enough to make that jump, which I think he is,” Edgar said of the UFC’s decision to slow play Jones’ journey down Greatness Road. “Age shouldn’t have anything to do with it. It should be based on performance. Like I said before, he’s stepping it up on the performance level and he’s running through dudes.

“I think he should be fighting anybody he really wants at this point.”

UFC president Dana White has promised Jones will face elite eight competition in his next outing. Although, I don’t believe there are that many 205-pounders alive that would be favored in a showdown with Jones. In fact, the Gambling Gods have just informed me they would likely only have Jones pegged as an underdog against light heavyweight champ Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, former title holder Lyoto Machida and middleweight king Anderson Silva.

Octagon brass know they have time on their side when it comes to Jones, so rushing him into a mega-fight at this stage of his career wouldn’t make sense. However, if he were 32-years-old instead of only two years above the legal drinking age, best believe there would be a greater sense of urgency from Mr. White and Co.

“Yeah, his time would be ticking a little bit more, but they know he’s got a lot of room to grow,” Edgar added. “It’s just going to be interesting to see where he’s going to be three-four years from now. It’s gonna be crazy.”

Some might say he’s pretty insane right now, Frankie.

[MarceloGarcia4Prez]

i aint gonna say he isnt great but i think before jones gets all this hype and respect he should probly fight a top 10 guy cause i feel like he has been baby so far in his career

[MarceloGarcia4Prez]

babied i mean not baby

[hot_rod1886]

I think they are doing a great job with him as they want Jones to be the next mega star of MMA. I honestly believe by this time next year, he will be fighting for the title or maybe even champion. As this current generation has brought the sport a long way, people like Jones have the potential to really take it that much further. On a side note, man Greg Jackson has some serious fighters at his camp.

[stpierrecanada]

Jones is one scary dude, and honestly I can see him hanging with any LHW in the world to be totally honest. Just because he hasn't fought a top 10 doesn't mean he hasn't been fighting really good competition, and even if, he destroyed every one of them. This guy is a monster.

[Pasha K]

He should first beat 2 or 3 Top 10 guys and only then we can say that he can fight anyone he wants.
He is a good fighter but I am not buying that hype that he is the next GOAT of MMA. Its still too early to think like that about hm

[The Return Of......]

This time the revolution will be televised.

In the form of Jon Jones. You can say he ain't fought no one yet all you want but It doesn't change the potential. He definitely has the potential to be great. Its nor That is his winning IRS how he is winning and you can watch his progression. Vlady wasn't a gimme fight. Hell a lot of people even on Ger thought Vlad would win or give bones tough fight and Jones made it look easy. You can't deny the potential unless Your Just hating or don't know what your watching. The only question is will he live up to his potential. Don't believe the hype believe the potential. I don't think he will let us down

[TheKidInside]

reminds me way too much of Vera, very carefully brought up and then crashes...

so i am not on the bandwagon until he fights a top-10 guy...maybe even top-15

[Repenter]

i'm really not seeing what the rush is with him. he hasn't beaten any of the top ten yet, and has nothing but time on his side. it isn't anything against the guy, but wins over two tops ten fighters to me would fully convince me of his worldbeating powers. the thing that interested me the most about this article was the 'shortlist' of fighters who would be favored in the betting lines over him, which is a very telling assessment. make no mistake though, it's entirely too soon for a fight against anyone of shogun's caliber.

an interesting thought to project him into that level of superstardom is to essentially sacrifice rampage to his alter. the amount of cred he would get off that win could build his career.

[jlruthven84]

Originally Posted by MarceloGarcia4Prez

i aint gonna say he isnt great but i think before jones gets all this hype and respect he should probly fight a top 10 guy cause i feel like he has been baby so far in his career

I don't know, man...drawing Matt Hamill and Brandon Vera back to back that early in your career isn't really a spoon-feeding. I agree that the Vlad fight was a bit of a joke, but I wouldn't worry too much now; the UFC brass has no excuse not to ramp up the difficulty at this point.