LAS VEGAS — You may not remember, but April 28, 2015, was a momentous day in mixed martial arts history. Late that afternoon, the greatest fighter in the sport’s brief history was stripped of his championship.
Jon Jones had won the light heavyweight championship with a dominant, one-sided victory over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua some four years earlier at UFC 128. That was the first of a five-fight span over an 18-month period when Jones defeated five men in succession who held UFC belts.
After the last of those fights, there was little doubt in anyone’s mind that we were looking at a different kind of athlete.