Glover Teixeira. Pic by SHERDOG.COM -click for source-

Take all your fight predictions and the criteria with which you deduce your conclusions and put them aside. When it comes to great fighters, we all lose our minds a bit. Every great fighter who loses for the first time, at the peak of his dominant career, always does so to the shocked silence of the hardcore fans.

Right before Anderson Silva was knocked out by Chris Weidman at UFC 162 back in July, it was very difficult for fans to accept that moment. It’s been only a few months since then and yet many fans still talk about how Weidman got lucky and that roles would’ve been reversed, if Silva had taken the fight seriously in the first place.

UFC president Dana White shared some interesting ‘behind the scenes’ memories he had from that fated night, at a recent press conference  involving a seven city tour in seven different countries, all for UFC 168’s main event, Anderson Silva vs. Chris Weidman.

“Like I’ve told you guys before,” said Dana, “After that first round, Roy Jones Jr. ran over to me and said, ‘this fights over! He’s in his head, he’s in his head!’ Fucking everybody was going crazy, like crazy!”

If anyone understands what he’s looking at in the fight game, it would be Roy Jones Jr. Yet even the boxing legend himself couldn’t imagine Silva losing, until the moment it happened right before his eyes.

Even after defeating the man that night, Weidman is still considered an underdog for his first title defense against the very man he took the title from in Anderson Silva. It’s because some men’s legends are well established and utterly too daunting in nature to question. The shear notion of their greatness alone must be killed before they are truly defeated in the eyes of the public.

When James “Buster” Douglas stepped in to the ring on February 11th, 1990, as he waited for Mike Tyson to enter the arena, I was six. But I’ve seen the footage and I’m sure it wasn’t any different than any other moment proceeding that poignant moment a legend falls to an unlikely champion.

Our perspective is skewed by the length of the shadow thrown over the division by champions who don’t seem human in our eyes. What you have to look at in these situations is the ability of the fighter who will be challenging the champion next, not the ability of the champion himself.

In the case of Jon Jones, until recently in his last title defense against Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 165 that is, he was considered invincible. Since slugging it out in a back and forth brawl against the Swedish contender, people still aren’t giving Glover a chance.

 “It’s funny because, before the Gustafsson fight everybody was like, ‘(insert whiny voice) Oooh Gustafsson gettin a shot at Jones! This is ridiculous! This guy and that guy should be fighting Jones!” said White at the UFC 168 presser. “It doesn’t matter who Jones beats, people are always gonna hate on Jon Jones. Jon Jones has that tough fight now and it’s like, ‘[people are saying] Glover Teixeira doesn’t deserve it.’ Glover Teixeira’s on a 21 fight win streak and he knocks people out. Has he been in a couple wars and been clipped? Yah, who cares? The most important part is: he ends up winning at the end of the fight, and most of the time by knockout.”

Now people don’t doubt Gustafsson or Teixeira. If fans did, then there would be riots in the street at the official ranking in the division that both men hold right now. Gus is ranked the #1 contender in the world and Glover stands at #2. That’s not something anyone argues with, except when comparing them to the legend of Jon Jones.

Dana crystallized the truth in one sentence, out of every press conference he’s ever answered questions on the chances any of his top contenders have against the champions they are pitted against, when he talked about Glover’s chances against Jones in the block quote above. “The most important part is: he ends up winning at the end of the fight, and most of the time by knockout.”

That’s why Gus was dangerous for Jones in the first place. He deserved to be there. Simply put, his skill is legitimately ranked in the world, as something Jon Jones should have trouble with.

That’s why Weidman was Silva’s biggest test and why Glover will be no easy task for Jones as well. Look closely at what all three contenders have in common. None of them lose, and they all finish fights. That’s why Glover is Jones’s most dangerous test, regardless of his under rated status, coming in to his fight with the champ.

On paper, Jones has many more tools, just like he did against Gus. Absolutely no one, including myself, believed Jones needed to stand with the Swede. Some of us believed Jones might’ve struggled with his opponent’s reach, strong striking abilities, and similar athletic build.

Aside from that point of view, no one I know doubted Jones’s perceived ability to take the Swede down at will and eventually finish the fight without incident. Anyone who didn’t think so must live in Sweden, because only fans with true reasons for bias probably gave Gus a chance against Jones on the ground.

The point is no one knows what will happen. Already people will be saying that Glover is too one dimensional. He’s older, and from his past fights, will probably resort to plodding forward and looking to use his linear stand up repertoire with a heavy focus on his boxing prowess, to set up the potential for knockouts.

“Hmm..” we all will say. “That sounds a lot like Rampage’s strategy and he got leg kicked, elbowed, and eventually choked out for his troubles.” Jon Jones will be fighting the second best man in his weight class. That’s all anyone needs to know when considering Glover’s chances against the pound for pound best fighter in the world.