Islam Makhachev has taken a swing at both Jon Jones and Dana White over the recent debate surrounding the pound-for-pound best UFC fighter.

At the UFC 302 post-fight press conference, Dana White argued that despite the lightweight champion being an outstanding athlete, he still considers Jon Jones to be the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world.

This certainly didn’t sit well with Islam Makhachev, who himself responded by stating White should be thankful that the Russian ‘saved’ the card as the previous bouts were putting the arena crowd to sleep. And Makhachev wasn’t done there.

Islam Makhachev takes a swing at Jon Jones on Instagram

If it wasn’t obvious that Islam Makhachev was irritated by the entire P4P debate even happening, considering he both entered and left the Prudential Center as the consensus pound-for-pound best fighter in the world, it is now.

Makhachev recently took to social media to post an infographic showing the number and quality of fights that both he and Jon Jones have competed in since 2021; as a way to compare the recent strength of schedule of both superstars.

On the Russians side, you’ve got submission victories over Drew Dober, Thiago Moises, and Dan Hooker, which was followed by a TKO win over Bobby Green.

Then you move into the championship run, with the four UFC lightweight title fights that Makhachev has come through so far being a submission of Charles Oliveira, a decision and knockout over Alexander Volkanovski, and finally the submission of Dustin Poirier at UFC 302.

On Jon Jones’ side of the table, there was the first-round submission over Ciryl Gane… And that’s it – with Makhachev having added just the word ‘Sorry’ to the blank space left under the Frenchman’s name.

As of June 2024, Makhachev remains #1 on the official UFC pound-for-pound rankings, one spot above Jon Jones, who himself has recently teased that his long-awaited return fight could take place in November at Madison Square Garden against Stipe Miocic.

Interestingly, one fighter who came to the defense of Makhachev regarding the P4P debate was bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley, who argued that there’s no one who even comes close to the Russian.

White doubles down on his argument for Jones over Makhachev

The post from Makhachev comes on the heels of Dana White’s recent appearance on the Flagrant Podcast, in which he doubled down on the idea that Jones should be above the Russian wrecking ball on the pound-for-pound list.

“The greatest fighter to have ever lived, ever is f***** Jon Jones,” exclaimed White, before explaining that “When you really think about fighting and you put two guys in a room, and who f****** comes out, Jon Jones walks out of that f***** room every time.

“I love Islam but the fact that Jon Jones is number two on the pound-for-pound list, it just goes to show how f***** stupid [because] it’s the media who votes on that, they have no f**** idea – they know nothing about the sport.”

White, who has certainly had a rollercoaster relationship with ‘Bones’ across his illustrious career, returned to the idea that “When you really think about what the pound-for-pound means, Jon Jones is the pound-for-pound best.”

“I think Jon Jones is one of those guys who isn’t really going to be appreciated until he’s gone; if he fights Stipe Miocic, the greatest of all time versus the greatest heavyweight and see how that plays out.”

Whilst there have been multiple rumors of Jones vs Miocic being targeted for November at MSG, we are still waiting for official confirmation of that bout going ahead.