It looks like Rico Verhoeven’s performance against Oleksandr Usyk may have left more of an impression than many initially believed. Otherwise, explain why, despite winning the hugely controversial bout, Usyk has once again zeroed in on another combat sports star from a non-boxing background.

The social media landscape is now abuzz with reports that Usyk, who recently vacated all the world heavyweight titles, has expressed interest in a matchup again with former UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones. While he mentioned former WBC champion Deontay Wilder as an alternate for what many consider his farewell fight, Jones’ name has caused quite a stir. What makes it so intriguing is that the former UFC champion, whose own career has pretty much stalled after his retirement last year, when asked about a potential Oleksandr Usyk boxing match, outright rejected the bout. According to ‘Bones,’ he would rather face Usyk in the cage than in the ring.

“No. No, not at all,” Jones told Ring Magazine. “Usyk is Usyk, man. He’s one of the absolute goats of boxing, of heavyweight boxing.

“I also am aware that he does wrestling and that wrestling has been a heavy part of his training for many years. It’s probably why he’s so dominant in the clinch. If he’d like to test his total combat skills, I would oblige him in that. But to handicap myself by only using my hands, I mean, that’s just that’s not the world that I come from.”

So while he expressed his interest in one day fighting Usyk, when it comes to boxing the Ukrainian, Jon Jones admitted he’d like to avoid it completely. However, the MMA great, while giving the former undisputed champion his flowers, also had a word of warning for him.

“Out of all of the heavyweight boxers, I do see Usyk having the highest potential of making it competitive,” Jones explained. “But I am no boxer, and I don’t really consider Usyk to be a complete fighter. I think the world knows what would happen if we were locked in the same room, and I’ll just leave it at that.

“I am gonna pass. The way I respect him in the ring, he should respect me in that octagon.”

Jon Jones’ preference for an MMA bout with Usyk while rejecting a boxing match largely stems from the Ukrainian’s well-documented willingness to incorporate grappling skills in his demanding training regimen. During an interview with actor Mario Lopez, Usyk once revealed how he borrows techniques from wrestling, jiu-jitsu, judo, and sambo to develop balance and key skills such as hip rotation.

While he rates boxing as the premier combat sport, Usyk believes judo, BJJ, and other disciplines help make a complete fighter. That philosophy also extends to his personal life, with the three-time undisputed champion frequently celebrating his sons’ achievements in judo on social media.

Considering that his own boxing experience is limited to the striking exchanges during mixed martial arts training, Jon Jones must have felt that Usyk’s grappling skills could help narrow the mismatch inside the ring and potentially replace it with a more competitive fight inside the cage.

From Jones’ perspective, it is also not the first time he has been called out by a boxing champion.

The boxing world keeps coming back to Jon Jones

A few years ago, the former UFC heavyweight champion saw his name enter the conversation when Joe Rogan speculated how he would take Tyson Fury, the then-WBC titleholder, apart during an episode of the JRE.

The exchanges escalated to a level where Fury, who later found himself struggling against another former UFC heavyweight title holder, Francis Ngannou, during their 2023 bout, responded with an aggressive callout before Jones eventually laughed it off.

Some context should help in understanding this. This is not the first time Usyk has called out an MMA fighter. Last year, in a surprise move, the Ukrainian, then holding the unified championship in the heavyweight division, expressed interest in facing off against Alex Pereira.

“(After Dubois or Parker), maybe a ‘show fight’ with Alex Pereira,” Usyk told TNT Sports. “Maybe. Why not? Alex wants to.”

In response, Pereira, who, unlike Jon Jones, has a professional boxing match on his record, also felt the matchup with Usyk could take shape amid hopes for a fight against Jones or Dricus du Plessis. It’s a different matter; the fight never really took off despite the buzz it generated.

Taking that history into consideration, it’s important to ask whether, outside of the headlines and the back and forth, it is genuinely a sound idea for Usyk to enter a cage while he anticipates the final fight of his career.

The boxing vs. MMA debate recently produced a heated online exchange when Terence Crawford taunted former UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria after he was knocked out by Justin Gaethje at the UFC White House event in June. The discussion saw many criticize Crawford by pointing out that, in the history of combat sports, James Toney remains the only prominent and widely-known boxer to have crossed over into the cage for a competitive MMA bout.

That attempt, however, ended disastrously with Randy Couture submitting Toney in the first round.

That example makes for a compelling argument as to why, despite his well-rounded and highly technical skill set, Oleksandr Usyk may barely stand a chance against someone like Jon Jones.

His grappling-wrestling skills may have helped him win the clinches against much bigger fighters such as Anthony Joshua, Fury, and, more recently, Daniel Dubois. But that success, however impressive inside the boxing ring, may not necessarily translate to a full fight inside an octagon.

The fight against Verhoeven, where many felt Usyk fell short during the initial rounds as the former kickboxing champion controlled him with relentless pressure, appeared to expose a few vulnerabilities in the Ukrainian’s game. Though he went on to win the bout with an 11th-round TKO, the outcome remained highly controversial.

Since he has decided to finally conclude his career with one more fight, it may be better for Usyk to restrict himself to a matchup against another former boxing champion, someone like Wilder, where he has a better chance of winning and can end his career on a high note rather than with a questionable loss inside a cage.