Joe Rogan Says Jon Jones Made Ciryl Gane Look Unspecial
Joe Rogan called Jon Jones a one-of-one athlete after watching the Ciryl Gane fight again, and Sean Sharaf answered by calling him the greatest of all time. The exchange came on The Joe Rogan Experience as the two compared Jones with the heavyweights now sitting near the title.
“So, John is a very unique athlete, though,” Rogan said. “I mean, he’s, he’s a one of one.” Sharaf cut in with the line that framed the rest of the clip. “He’s the GOAT. I mean,” he said. Rogan then went straight to the night Jones took the vacant heavyweight belt.
“what he did to Cyril Gane, I just watched that fight again. It’s f***ing insane,” he said, using his own pronunciation of Ciryl Gane. “Cyril never touched him. He got a hold of Cyril, dragged him to the ground, strangled him, tap, tap, that’s it, that’s a wrap, walked away, didn’t get scratched.”
That finish is the first-round guillotine at UFC 285 on March 4, 2023, stopped at 2:04. Jones walked out of the cage with the vacant heavyweight title. Gane, a former interim champion who had already lost a decision to Francis Ngannou, did not land the kind of offense Rogan remembered on the replay.
Rogan then put that result next to what Gane has done since. “And then, now you have Cyril Gane as the heavyweight champion of the world,” he said. “And you see what he did to Pereira, you see what he did, at least in the first round before the eye pokes, to Aspinall. It’s like, Cyril Gane’s a special athlete, and John made him look unspecial.” Gane stopped Alex Pereira at 1:27 of the second round at UFC Freedom 250 on June 14, 2026, and won the interim heavyweight title.
His meeting with Tom Aspinall at UFC 321 on October 25, 2025, was ruled a no contest at 4:35 of the first round after eye pokes. Aspinall vacated the undisputed belt in September 2026 because of the eye injury. Dana White later told Sportsnet that Gane would not be elevated and still has to fight for the undisputed title, even as the UFC athlete page lists a September promotion.
Sharaf started a comparison with Gable Steveson and got only as far as “But Gable’s” before Rogan shut the idea down. “not that. He’s not the same guy,” Rogan said. “He’s not that guy, you know? It takes a long f***ing time to be John Jones.” Sharaf had knocked Steveson out in 12 seconds at UFC 331 on September 19, 2026, and moved to 5-2. Rogan treated that result as a different conversation from the one he was having about Jones.
He argued that the reputation was built, not handed over. “Also, when John Jones became John Jones, he became John Jones slowly,” Rogan said. “I mean, it was quick in terms of, like, he was the quickest ever to become, yeah, I think 22, became the youngest ever UFC champion, but. But there’s a long process in getting there.
Like, he didn’t have that.” Jones was 23 when he beat Mauricio Rua at UFC 128 on March 19, 2011. Rogan remembered the early nights as “He fought Guskov, he fought, he fought Guskov, he fought, Stefan Bonner,” names that line up with Andre Gusmao and Stephan Bonnar on the record.
“He fought a bunch of guys and started looking like, like this guy might be something very unique,” he said. “And then he beat Shogun and wins the title and then just goes on this just f***ing epic, legendary tear.”
Sharaf pointed at the list. “And just the people he beat, like,” he said. Rogan answered twice. “Yeah, he beat everybody,” he said. “He beat everybody and he beat everybody when he wasn’t training.”
Sharaf said he still has a signed photo from that night. “I have a photo of like that, from that expo with he signed with a, it’s like Machida unconscious,” he said. “Oh, yeah. I’m like, fing, I’ve had that in my room fing forever.”
Rogan called it one of the coldest wins in the sport. “That was one of the coldest victories in the history of the sport,” he said. “He chokes Machida unconscious and then drops him. Yeah. Just standing up, choked him unconscious, dropped him and just walked away.” Sharaf answered, “Just cold. Just cold.” Rogan added, “Falls down in a heap.” The standing guillotine came at UFC 140 on December 10, 2011.
Jones remains the measuring stick Rogan used for both Gane and Steveson. Gane is the heavyweight White says still has to fight for the undisputed belt, and the man Jones finished in one round in 2023.
