If there's a recurring theme atop the marquee at Saturday's loaded UFC 239 card in Las Vegas, it's the idea of greatness on display. 

The two title bouts headlining UFC's annual showcase during International Fight Week feature both the male (Jon Jones) and female (Amanda Nunes) consensus G.O.A.T. in difficult challenges to their respective reigns. 

For Jones (24-1, 1 NC), who returns to the Octagon for the third time in seven months following the conclusion of a USADA suspension that threatened the future of his career, his light heavyweight title defense against Thiago Santos presents a historic opportunity. Should he win, Jones will equal George St. Pierre's record for victories in a title bout with 13. 

Can't get enough UFC? Subscribe to my podcast State of Combat with Brian Campbell where we break down everything you need to know in the Octagon at the 56:59 mark below.

Just how great the 31-year-old Jones truly is has never really been in doubt. From the moment he rose from obscurity to jump off the screen in his first UFC bouts, he was labeled as a phenom headed for greatness. And besides a series of disciplinary and drug testing issues that forced him to be stripped of his 205-pound title a record three times, Jones has lived up to his promise in dramatic fashion. 

Outside of a disqualification loss for an illegal elbow in a fight he was dominating against Matt Hamill in 2009 (which UFC is currently attempting to get removed from his record), Jones has been perfect inside the Octagon. In fact, the more crazy his personal life became at times through felony arrests and an admitted recreational drug habit, the better Jones would perform come fight night. 

Not only has he never lost cleanly, Jones has never been knocked down in 20 UFC fights. He has been taken down only twice -- once each by Daniel Cormier and Alexander Gustafsson -- and holds the third best takedown defense in UFC history at 95 percent. When it comes to light heavyweight history, he also holds just about every UFC record, which brings up a bit of an issue entering Saturday's return. 

Jones is the greatest talent to ever step foot in the cage. He has also cleaned out his division two separate times over the past eight years, which has created a certain lack of excitement heading into his title defenses against the current crop of light heavyweights. 

With all due respect to Anthony Smith, whom Jones dominated in March, and Santos, who brings a puncher's chance and not much more into Saturday, Jones is almost too good to be wasting his time in such one-sided matchups. Even worse, UFC's decision to allow Jones to linger any longer at 205 pounds likely only sets the current crop of future contenders back knowing that their end game is to get served up to Jones. 

From the moment the 6-foot-4 Jones first won UFC gold in 2011 by beating Mauricio "Shogun" Rua to a bloody pulp, fans and critics wondered how his insane 84.5-inch reach would fare against heavyweights. Heck, Jones helped fuel that fantasy for years by talking up the inevitability that he would one day move up and become a two-division champion.

Suddenly it's 2019 and Jones is attempting to clean out a third generation of fighters in his own division at time when light heavyweight is filled with unproven and unheralded names. When one considers that heavyweight is as loaded with as many marketable names as it has been in years -- including, no less, than Jones' chief rival in Cormier as champion -- from a simple UFC economics standpoint it would seem to make sense for Jones to move up now. It would make just as much sense from a legacy standpoint. 

Jones may already be the G.O.A.T.  to many, but that upper table that he sits at is a crowded one at the moment as some continue to make the case for everyone from St-Pierre, Anderson Silva, Demetrious Johnson, Fedor Emelianenko and even Cormier as being relevant within the G.O.A.T. conversation. Going up one division to win another title and turn back a group of incredibly difficult challenges would set Jones apart by a wide distance and remove any need to compare resumes. 

Let's face it: Jones' destruction of the 205-pound division over the past decade has been remarkable. First, he cleaned out the golden era before him with one dominant victory after another over the likes of Rua, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans and Vitor Belfort -- with those five wins taking place over a remarkable 16-month stretch. From there, Jones took care of the generation which followed, scoring wins over Gustafsson (twice), Cormier (twice, with one changed to a no contest), Glover Teixeira and Ovince Saint Preux. [Not to mention, wins over Chael Sonnen, Stephan Bonnar and current Bellator two-division champion Ryan Bader.]

To see Jones potentially chip away at this third generation of light heavyweights during his reign as champion doesn't offer much in terms of entertainment or additional clout to his legacy as the most decorated champion the division has ever known. 

The likes of Johnny Walker, Dominick Reyes, Anthony Smith, Aleksandr Rakic, Corey Anderson and even a re-inventing Luke Rockhold, who makes his 205-pound debut on Saturday, may very well go on to prove they are a willing heir to Jones' reign. But they will never get there with Jones standing in the way. Similar to the whispers Johnson once heard above moving back up to bantamweight following an insane run at flyweight, there simply aren't any remaining challenges that make a ton of sense for Jones. 

Despite plenty of detours to get to this point, Jones is still on track to fulfill his bright potential by being this sport's answer to Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods. Here's to hoping UFC 239 is the final step before Jones moves up and challenges himself against the biggest and baddest the sport has to offer in a decision that's just as good for business as it is for legacy.