‘Suga’ Sean O’Malley has dropped in his verdict, snubbing Dana White’s Jon Jones claim to name Islam Makhachev as UFC’s P4P best. The The Montana’s opinion aligns with the rest of the world who believe that given the current crop of active fighters in the UFC, Islam Makhachev easily comes out on top.
Speaking to the host at the popular MMA page, The Mac Life, O’Malley said,
“Islam, I mean just activity, right now Islam is the pound-for-pound best in the world I believe.”
According to the bantamweight champion, Jon Jones isn’t just active enough for him to be considered.
Following the LW champ’s title defense at UFC 302, UFC president, Dana White hailed ‘Bones’ as the #1 guy in the pound-for-pound list, saying that not only Bones had never lost, he had moved up a weight class and toyed with one of their best guys.
He had also argued that it’s a no-brainer to name any other fighter the best when the Albuquerque native is still around.
Do note that Jones has fought just 4 times since before COVID! That’s 5 long years!
Now as for the P4P rankings, Makhachev is at the top closely followed by the welterweight champion, Leon ‘The Rocky’ Edwards while ‘Bones’ is well off the top 5! This has confused many a fan, who want to know how these rankings are calculated.
The P4P rankings explained
To be fair, you can’t argue with Uncle Dana over Jones being great because he had cleaned out the LHW division before going up to heavyweight in search of new competition. But does that make him the P4P best?
Well, there are more variables to that equation and the answer isn’t that simple either. In fact, if one is to take into account, the PED abuses and inactivity, Jones wouldn’t fare well while Makhachev on the other hand has remained active, taking on opponents one after the other.
As per Tapology, Makhachev is the undisputed king at the #1 spot followed by the Brit, Edwards. Next is Ilia Topuria at the third spot while current LHW champ, Alex Pereira gets in there as the fourth in the list followed by Alexander Volkanovski and Sean O’Malley at 5 and 6. Jones however is well down in the rankings, just inside the top 10 at the 10th position.
However, as Kamaru Usman explained on his podcast with Henry Cejudo, the P4P rankings are subjective. It’s a fantasy league where we see which fighter’s skills translate how well across divisions. If it transcends into any and every division and weight class there is, then that is what makes you the P4P #1.
However, it doesn’t make you invincible. You can still have tough fights and bleed and just win by an inch and still be a P4P #1 because your style of fighting would sustain you regardless of who you face in whatever division theoretically.
