Jon Jones rips UFC rankings system

Count UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones among those who are not a fan of the UFC rankings system.

Jones took to his Instagram to criticize the voters for ranking Daniel Cormier ahead of him on the pound-for-pound list, despite Jones previous success over him.

Here’s what the champ said.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B0ww9vbnbRM/

“Double tap if the ending of this video confused the hell out of you. I mean the first time I fought DC I beat him unanimously. This ranking system can’t be based off straight up skills, wins and resume. Politics I guess. Whoever is ahead of the UFC rating system needs to slap themselves for this lol”

The pound-for-pound rankings currently list Jones at No. 2 in the world and Cormier at No. 1.

Jones is 19-1, 1 NC in the UFC. He defeated Cormier by decision in 2015 and then knocked him out with a head kick in 2017, only to have the fight overturned to a No Contest. Since the second DC fight, Jones has gone 3-0 with a finish over Alexander Gustafsson and decision wins over Thiago Santos and Anthony Smith. His lone career loss was a controversial DQ against Matt Hamill in 2009. All of Jones’ fights have come at 205lbs.

Cormier is 11-1, 1 NC overall in the UFC. He has been both the UFC light heavyweight and heavyweight champions, and fighting in multiple weight classes is important to the pound-for-pound ranks. However, he has lost twice to Jones (only once officially) and has eight less wins than Jones does, making the decision for DC to be ranked above Jones debatable.

The UFC rankings have often been criticized in the past for being inconsistent, but you rarely see the top fighters like Jones call the voters out like this. We’ll see if Jones’ criticisms do anything to change the rankings at the next update. But either way, this could be the fuel needed in order to book the trilogy fight between these two rivals.

Who do you think should be ranked higher in the pound-for-pound rankings, Jon Jones or Daniel Cormier?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 8/5/2019.