MMA fighter vs boxer in a street fight—who comes out on top? It’s one of combat sports’ oldest debates, and fans never get tired of asking it. At its core, the question isn’t just about two disciplines—it’s about survival. Who actually walks away when the gloves are off and the fight has no rules? History has provided us with a few examples.

In 2010, UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture dismantled boxing great James Toney in brutal fashion at UFC 118, shooting for a low single-leg takedown before locking in a first-round arm-triangle choke. For Toney, it was a harsh debut—and a stark lesson in what happens when a pure boxer steps into the Octagon. Flip the script, however, and the outcome often swings the other way.

Jon Jones vs Francis Ngannou—decoding the real baddest man on the planet

But there are rare exceptions—most notably Anderson Silva, who leaned on his cross-disciplinary experience to outpoint Julio César Chávez Jr. in 2021. But that upset was an outlier, a reminder that crossover victories are possible, though uncommon. What it underscores is a broader reality—MMA mirrors the chaos of a real street fight more closely than boxing ever could.

And that brings us to the enduring question—who really deserves the title of the baddest man on the planet? Years later, the script flipped when Conor McGregor stepped into Floyd Mayweather’s world. Inside the boxing ring, Mayweather dissected McGregor before sealing a 10th-round TKO to extend his record to 50-0. The lesson from both? Under MMA rules, an MMA fighter thrives. Under boxing rules, the boxer dominates. But the true fantasy matchup lives outside the ring and cage—on the streets.

No referees, no time limits, no safety nets. A fight until one man can’t continue. And in that unforgiving scenario, most observers give the edge to MMA fighters, whose toolkits include submissions, takedowns, and grappling. But who’s truly the “baddest man alive”? Former heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier weighed in on Club Shay Shay, making it clear to Shannon Sharpe where he stands.

“The baddest man on the planet is the UFC heavyweight champion every time. Unless Francis Ngannou is out there fighting for someone else, right? Then there’s a chance he’s the baddest man on the planet. He might beat whoever we have because he’s that good. But if not, it’s either Tom Aspinall, Francis Ngannou, or Jon Jones right now. Those are the baddest men on the planet. Nobody else,” the UFC commentator said.

Few debates in combat sports stir more passion than the argument over who deserves the label of “baddest man on the planet.” For UFC CEO Dana White, that title has long belonged to Jon Jones. Yet, for years, fans circled one fight as the ultimate litmus test: ‘Bones’ versus Francis Ngannou. The heavyweight clash stood on the brink of reality, hailed as the showdown that could settle the debate once and for all. But when negotiations collapsed, so too did the sport’s most anticipated super fight.

Did Francis Ngannou really duck Jon Jones, or is it the other way around?

Critics long charged Jon Jones with avoiding Francis Ngannou, while others maintained that ‘The Predator’ simply priced himself out. Dana White added fuel to the fire by placing the blame on the Cameroonian, though many fans countered that it was ‘Bones’ who refused to take the risk. The dispute fractured the once-working relationship between UFC CEO Dana White and Ngannou.

What followed was a bitter fallout. Their feud remained a recurring talking point—reaching new intensity last year when, in an interview with Kevin Iole, White mocked Francis Ngannou’s decision to sign with the PFL, branding it “goofy” and portraying it as an excuse to avoid Jon Jones. Ngannou, however, quickly pushed back, turning the narrative against Jones and drawing parallels to the controversy that followed when Jones withdrew from a potential clash with Tom Aspinall.

“As far as I’m concerned, Jon Jones didn’t want to fight me, according to [the UFC]. So many times we sat down to make the fight and they said, ‘Oh it can’t happen, Jon Jones doesn’t want to fight anymore.’”

To this day, the question of who truly avoided whom continues to divide the MMA world. Did Jon Jones sidestep ‘The Predator’ to safeguard his unblemished résumé, or did Francis Ngannou walk away to protect his strategy from being unraveled by one of the sharpest fight IQs the sport has ever seen?