Joe Rogan is full of praise for Jon Jones after watching him TKO Stipe Miocic to successfully defend his heavyweight title at UFC 309 last weekend, but his assessment of another massive UFC star Conor McGregor is far less glowing.
Like McGregor, Jones has had his share of troubles outside of the Octagon over the years, but while the heavyweight champion has still been able to repeatedly prove his worth in the Octagon when it counted, ‘The Notorious’ appears to have lost his way.
“Jon’s in a different category,” Rogan said on his podcast. “Conor self-destructed in a lot of ways because of money. He took that fight with Floyd Mayweather, made a ton of money off that, and then took a long time before he came back to MMA, and he’s just not been the same guy since.
“And I think that’s just – it’s money, it’s a lot of partying, but it’s the same kind of thing. It’s just a wild (change). But when Conor was in his prime, he was a f*cking assassin.”
And while McGregor did win both the featherweight and lightweight titles in his prime, Rogan makes it clear that there’s no comparison long reign of dominance against top-tier opposition.
“Jon is a special dude. When he’s gone, we’re all going to miss him. He’s a different kind of guy. I mean, he’s been at the top for 14 f*cking years. He was the youngest guy to ever win a UFC title, 23. … But when Jon Jones won that title at 23, it’s just been destruction of everyone ever since. Never ducked anybody, fought all the best, destroyed everybody, and dominated his division, (then) went up to heavyweight, dominates at heavyweight.”
