As the UFC on Fox 4 fight card approaches, there's a rumbling of discontent among MMA fans at the announcement that the most impressive winner from the evening's main event and co-main event bouts will be the next challenger to UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon "Bones" Jones.
Not that there's anything wrong as a fighter with Mauricio "Shogun" Rua or Lyoto Machida, the former UFC champs who are favored to win in their fights with Brandon Vera and Ryan Bader, respectively. However, the fact remains that Jones has beaten all four men in the last two years, which limits the intrigue of such a matchup.
The end result is that if Jones is successful in defending his title against Dan Henderson, he may not face the greatest test of his skills in his next title defense.
He would, however, face the greatest test of his stardom.
The UFC has known since at least 2010 that Jones would be the promotion's next great star. He was booked in main event bouts on basic cable against Vera and Vladimir Matyushenko to put his skills on display, faced off against Ryan Bader at UFC 126, and given a title shot against Rua as soon as Rashad Evans was forced to pull out with an injury. Since winning the title, he's been matched up against the best fighters the UFC's light heavyweight division has to offer: Rampage Jackson at UFC 135, Machida at UFC 140, Evans at UFC 145 and now Henderson at UFC 151. If Jones is successful against Henderson, he will have effectively cleaned out a generation of elite 205-pound fighters.
The next step could be to move on to the next generation, fighters like Alexander Gustafsson and Phil "Mr. Wonderful" Davis. However, Davis showed in his loss to Evans in January that he's not quite ready for that kind of challenge yet, and Gustafsson may or may not be the same story. Thus, another round with a fighter like Machida or Rua could be the best option.
The situation Jones faces now is not unlike what Anderson Silva faced in 2008. In the previous two years, "The Spider" had beaten Rich Franklin for the UFC Middleweight Championship at UFC 64, submitted Travis Lutter at UFC 67, TKOed seven-time King of Pancrase Nate Marquardt at UFC 73, fended off a return challenge from Franklin at UFC 77, and finished it all off by choking out Henderson at UFC 82. In Franklin, Marquardt and Henderson, Silva had beaten the best that the 185-pound division had to offer, and his subsequent efforts showed that he knew it. Silva was exciting when testing the waters at light heavyweight, but turned in a series of lackluster efforts in defending his title against Patrick Cote, Thales Leites and Demian Maia before the challenge of Chael Sonnen re-energized the champion.
If Jones is headed down this road, the challenge that he'll face is twofold. First, he'll have to show that his name on a fight poster alone can sell tickets, as is the case with Georges St-Pierre, Silva and other top UFC draws. Second, he'll have to show that even when the challenge isn't as great as it has been before, he can still deliver an exciting fight.
Before any of that, of course, he'll have to get past Henderson, which is no easy task. After that, if he's matched up against Machida or Rua (or even Vera or Bader), we'll find out what kind of a champion - and what kind of a star - Jon Jones is.
