Sherdog’s 2023 Comeback Fighter of the Year

Everyone loves a good comeback story, and mixed martial arts over the years has offered fans many variations on the theme of a once-forgotten fighter thrusting themself back into the limelight through some combination of determination, skill and luck.

Sometimes, as with Sherdog’s 2014 “Comeback Fighter of the Year,” Dominick Cruz, or 2009 winner Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, it is a case of a gifted but injury-prone fighter finally getting healthy enough to show what he can do over the course of a full year. Other times, a fighter whose best days were thought to be behind them, such as 2013 honoree Robbie Lawler or Jose Aldo in 2021, happens upon the key—a change in training camps, a different weight class or some other, less easily defined variable—that opens up a whole new chapter in their career.

Those comebacks, impressive as they are, mostly involve fighters who did not actually go away so much as disappear for a while from the spotlight. Rarer still are the times that a fighter returns after a literal, complete absence from the sport to approach or even recapture their previous status. Consider 2017 winner Georges St. Pierre, who came back after four years of apparently happy retirement to throttle Michael Bisping and add an Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight belt to his already impressive résumé as the greatest welterweight and one of the top pound-for-pound fighters of all time. (That year’s runner-up, Chan Sung Jung, who returned after three-plus years of mandatory military service in his native South Korea and immediately reestablished himself as a featherweight contender and major star, would have won in almost any other year.)

Let us think back to late 2020, truly a best of times, worst of times period for the UFC. On one hand, it had led the charge towards the new normal in the COVID-19 era, putting on events first in empty venues, then in partially full arenas subject to social distancing measures, on the way to a return to capacity crowds. On the other hand, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Henry Cejudo and Jon Jones, three of its most dominant champions and arguably the top three fighters in all of MMA, had all walked away from the sport after successfully defending their titles. All three were in or near their competitive prime, and in the latter two cases, the retirement was an explicit protest over pay negotiations with the promotion. Even for the UFC, masters of history as written by the victors, it was impossible to spin their departure as a positive.

At the time, it stood to reason that those three were not truly done competing—the likeliest exception being Nurmagomedov, who had never made money an issue, and who had a near carbon-copy protégé, Islam Makhachev, ready to assume his place on the lightweight throne sometime soon. However, if one were to speculate which of the three would be the first and the most successful to return, “Bones” would not have been most people’s first guess. He was financially comfortable and had a well-established history of getting into legal and personal trouble during idle periods in his professional career.

More importantly, of the three departed champions, Jones was the only one who had seemed in danger of being overtaken by the competition. While Cejudo left as a two-division champ on a string of knockout wins and Nurmagomedov had completely steamrolled almost every top contender in his weight class, Jones had barely gotten past Dominick Reyes in his final light heavyweight title defense—and in fact should have lost, in the eyes of many observers. Going back even further, Jones’ previous defense, a split decision nod over Thiago Santos, had not been particularly confidence-inspiring either.

Jones spent the next two years teasing his return. He claimed to be preparing for a move to heavyweight, complete with some very heavyweight-looking photos of himself, in and out of the gym. He commented through social media on every major heavyweight and light heavyweight UFC fight and traded verbal barbs with contenders in both divisions. Nonetheless, when Jones’ words became action and his return slash heavyweight debut was finally booked, it felt like a bit of a surprise.

There would be no cautious dipping of a toe into the waters: Jones was booked to headline one of the biggest UFC cards of the year, UFC 285 on March 4, where he would face Ciryl Gane for the heavyweight title left vacant in the wake of Sherdog’s 2023 “Story of the Year,” the departure of Francis Ngannou. The immediate title fight reflected the promotion’s faith in Jones’ skill, its recognition of his drawing power and its desire to move public conversation away from Ngannou as quickly as possible.

Gane as a return opponent seemed to be a tall order—literally, as the 6-foot-5, 250-pound Frenchman would be larger than Jones in a way none of his previous opponents could dream of. He also seemed to be a serious test as a frighteningly nimble big man with good footwork and a disciplined approach that was patient almost to a fault. Many fans and (ahem) at least a few pundits predicted that Gane would frustrate Jones and teach him some harsh realities about competing in a division in which he did not dwarf most of his foes. “Bones,” for his part, kept insisting that his UFC 285 assignment would be “easy work.”

That might have been dismissed as pre-fight gamesmanship, and it was very much in keeping with Jones’ pronouncements ahead of his light heavyweight title fights, but few could have predicted just how accurate it would prove to be. Jones simply marched Gane down, ignored the strikes coming his way—the only blow Gane landed that seemed to have any effect was a cup shot 10 seconds into the fight—and took him down effortlessly. When “Bon Gamin” struggled back up, Jones locked up a guillotine choke, bore down on it and crumpled him into a seated position at the base of the fence. With no way out, Jones standing over him and unconsciousness looming, Gane tapped out within seconds. In just two minutes and four seconds of work, Jones was the new UFC heavyweight champion, and true to his word, he had made it look exceedingly easy.

Jones’ title win in a second division pushed him to the forefront of the current pound-for-pound discussion and even further up the all-time list. He might have cemented those laurels even further but was forced out of his first scheduled heavyweight title defense at UFC 296 against former champ Stipe Miocic with a severe pectoral tear. The UFC replaced that fight by booking Tom Aspinall against Sergei Pavlovich in an interim title fight. Aspinall, Sherdog’s “Breakthrough Fighter of the Year” for 2023—and the runner-up in the category currently under discussion—demolished Pavlovich in minutes, setting up a potential Jones-Aspinall title unification bout sometime next year.

And therein lies the difference between Jones’ comeback and one like St. Pierre’s. While “GSP” came back to take on what he clearly saw as a vulnerable champ, and he and Bisping were both retired within months of their fight, Jones appears committed to having some sort of title run at heavyweight, even if he admits he has a limited number of fights left in him. Next year may see Jones defend the belt, further elevating this comeback into perhaps the greatest career resurgence in MMA history, but for now it will have to be enough that he is our “Comeback Fighter of the Year” for 2023.