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1. Jon Jones

No fighter in the history of MMA has shown the sheer diversity that Jones displays in his inside game. From the very beginning of his career in the UFC, the clinch has been Jones’ wheelhouse, the place where a relatively inexperienced fighter could retreat in times of trouble and get his bearings against increasingly skilled opposition. His height and reach give him incredible leverage in close quarters; he is shockingly strong; and he combines his substantial physical gifts with picture-perfect technique and a strong creative streak.

Jones’ opponents must first deal with the threat of his takedowns. Inside and outside trips are regular occurrences, but he is much better known for his high-amplitude throws. In his various UFC outings, Jones has used hip tosses, lateral drops, double-over hook throws, front headlock throws and German suplexes, rag-dolling his opponents all over the Octagon. Jones’ fight against Stephan Bonnar was a masterpiece in wrestling from the clinch, as he repeatedly tossed the experienced veteran with the utmost ease.

Nobody in MMA history has generated as much offense at close quarters and against such skilled opposition as the light heavyweight champion. The highlight-reel spinning elbow that Jones landed to great effect on Bonnar and still regularly employs on clinch breaks is only the beginning of his arsenal. He excels at creating space with shoulder strikes or head pressure and then coming high with a slicing horizontal or diagonal elbow. His strong posture allows him to land sharp, punishing knees to the body, the use of which drains his opponents’ cardio over the course of the bout; against Daniel Cormier, for example, Jones traded the American Kickboxing Academy ace’s punches to the head for knees to the solar plexus, sternum and liver in the first several rounds. The strategy cost him a bit early but paid off in the Olympian’s utter exhaustion in the fourth and fifth rounds.

Most important, however, is Jones’ incredible creativity. The spinning elbow is a good example, but so, too, is the guillotine or chancery choke he hit on Lyoto Machida and the shoulder crank he used to wreck Glover Teixeira’s right arm early in their fight. Against Cormier, he tried an Anderson Silva-style reverse elbow at close range, as well. He is a master of making adjustments on the fly: At UFC 182, he noted Cormier’s preference for throwing his right hand, and after the second round made it a priority to control that wrist before anything else.

Jones is still showing improvements from fight to fight through his experimentation with unorthodox or even unique submissions, increasingly strategic dedication to grinding down his opponents and ability to inflict serious damage. He is already the greatest in-fighter in MMA history, and it is scary to think of how much better he might yet become.

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HONORABLE MENTIONS: Mamoru Yamaguchi, Paul Daley, Robbie Lawler, Fabricio Werdum, Mauricio Rua, Fedor Emelianenko, Joe Warren, Benson Henderson

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