Islam Makhachev strengthened his case as one of the greatest fighters in UFC history at UFC 330, but Jon Jones clearly isn’t ready to hand him the GOAT crown just yet. With his win over Ian Machado Garry in the main event at Philadelphia’s Xfinity Mobile Arena, the welterweight champion surpassed Anderson Silva for the longest winning streak in UFC history at 17. The victory also saw him successfully defend his title in a second division.

Those accomplishments have naturally reignited the debate over whether the 34-year-old should already be considered the greatest fighter in UFC history. However, UFC CEO Dana White believes the Dagestani still has work to do.

Following Makhachev’s victory at UFC 330, White was asked about the welterweight champion’s status as the GOAT of UFC.

“If he didn’t have that one loss on his record, it would almost be a no-brainer,” White responded.

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While he has had 17 straight wins, the UFC CEO felt his loss to Adriano Martins in 2015 limits his chances of being considered the greatest of all time. Soon after, White’s comments were followed by a much more direct response from Jon Jones, who has long been considered the GOAT of the UFC.

The former UFC two-division champion took to X and shared an image highlighting fighters with the most UFC championship wins. Jones then questioned how Makhachev could suddenly be considered the new GOAT.

“Hopped on social media and heard there was a new goat? I’m so confused make it make sense,” Jones wrote.

The image showed Jon Jones at the top with 16 title wins and Islam Makhachev at the bottom (No.12) with 7 title-fight wins. Jones also shared the image on Instagram, where he doubled down on his position.

“In your honest opinion, who do you believe will be our next 16X champion?” Jones wrote in the caption.

He later added in the comments, “You guys thought I was just gonna sit there and let you call someone else GOAT?”

While Jones clearly doesn’t believe Makhachev has surpassed him, that doesn’t mean he isn’t impressed by what the Dagestani has accomplished.

While providing his prediction for UFC 330, Jones picked Makhachev to get the win over Garry.

“Islam may just be one of the greatest fighters in the world. Right now, it’s me and maybe him,” he told Red Corner MMA.

So, while Jones appears willing to recognize Islam Makhachev as one of the sport’s elite, he isn’t prepared to surrender his position in the GOAT conversation.

Why Islam Makhachev still hasn’t surpassed Jon Jones in the UFC GOAT debate

In his post, Jones claimed that he has 16 title-fight wins, which is true. Jones became the youngest UFC champion by defeating Shogun Rua at UFC 128 in 2011 at just 23 years old. From there, ‘Bones’ defended his belt eight times before the promotion stripped him of his undisputed title for the first time following his infamous 2015 hit-and-run case.

Jon Jones captured the light heavyweight belt once again by beating Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 232, beginning his second reign. During that period, the Rochester native defended the belt three times before moving up to heavyweight. In that case, ‘Bones’ is actually a two-time 205-pound champion.

After an illustrious reign at light heavyweight, Jones beat Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 to become the heavyweight champion and also retained his belt against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 to end his career.

On the other hand, Islam Makhachev has competed in a total of seven title fights across two divisions, which is considerably fewer than Jon Jones. The Dagestani beat Charles Oliveira at UFC 280 to become the lightweight champion. Following that, the 34-year-old defended the belt four times, surpassing his mentor Khabib Nurmagomedov’s record of three title defenses. That puts his total championship fights at 155 pounds at five.

Following his reign in the lightweight division, Makhachev moved up to 170 pounds and defeated Jack Della Maddalena to become a two-division champion. Now, he has just defended the belt against Ian Garry at UFC 330 in Philadelphia. So, as we can see, Jones is currently ahead of Makhachev in terms of total title fights and title defenses, while they are also even when it comes to winning a championship in a higher weight class.

But what gives Makhachev a slight edge is that his career has never come remotely close to the level of controversy as Jones’. For this reason alone, many might consider the Dagestani the GOAT. However, renowned figures like former middleweight champion Chris Weidman are not quite sold on the welterweight champion being the best ever, citing his lack of title defenses compared to Anderson Silva and Demetrious Johnson, who defended their titles 10 and 11 times, respectively.

Still, even with the disagreements, everyone seems to recognize that Islam Makhachev is really close to becoming the GOAT.

Despite this, for now, however, Jon Jones isn’t ready to pass the torch, and Dana White believes Makhachev’s career still needs a few more chapters before the GOAT debate can be settled.