When Jon Jones made the decision to vacate the UFC light heavyweight title in order to take some time off before coming back at heavyweight, his former division was left in a strange place.
The title seemed to change hands constantly without a real dominant presence at the top, until Alex Pereira made the move up from middleweight.
Having conquered the 185-pound division before losing the title in a rematch with Israel Adesanya, he went on to do the same at 205.
Whilst it would be hard to argue that Pereira is the most skilled mixed martial artist on the planet, his record and accomplishments in such a short period of time speak for themselves.
It was only a matter of time, with just one weight class between them, that people started to pit Pereira versus the current heavyweight champion.
Modestas Bukauskas Says Jon Jones Is Undeniable Despite Alex Pereira's Achievements
In a recent interview with InsideFighting, UFC light heavyweight Modestas Bukauskas gave his thoughts on whether Pereira has done enough to overshadow Jones on the pound-for-pound list.
There has been a debate over the past several months about whether Jones or the lightweight champion Islam Makhachev should be considered the best on the planet, but after Pereira put on another dominant display at UFC 303, he has entered the conversation.
Bukauskas, who returns at UFC 304 against Marcin Prachnio, cites Pereira as a big inspiration and has briefly trained with Jones much earlier in his career.
He believes that despite his admiration for the impact that "Poatan" has had, the record books alone show why "Bones" is considered by many to be the greatest to ever do it.
I mean if you're talking about who's probably the greatest of all time and what they've done in the sport, how could Jon Jones not be at the top of that list? Alex Pereira has obviously done a hell of a lot considering like in a short space of time but you know, Jon Jones has literally had about like 10 or 11 title defenses or something like that. When you're defending the belt like that many times and now moved up to heavyweight and stuff like this, I mean you can't really deny that. Although, what Alex has done has been amazing but I'd still put Jon Jones at the top of that list.
