Dana White’s treatment of Jon Jones has been an ongoing topic this year and it shows no sign of letting up as this past Wednesday, the UFC boss once again got into a debate with the media regarding his stance on the UFC star.
UFC CEO Dana White has continuously lauded heavyweight champion, Jon Jones this year, stating that he is undeniably the pound-for-pound greatest fighter on the planet, despite having only competed once in the last 18 months.
Even some of his own fighters – Sean O’Malley being one – have disputed his claims, stating that UFC lightweight champion, Islam Makhachev is the current pound-for-pound number-one fighter in the promotion.
Dana White once again argues with the media about Jon Jones being P4P number one
This past Wednesday during the Dana White’s Contender Series post-fight press conference, the UFC boss once again ended up getting stuck into a rant about ‘Bones’.
Earlier this week, fans picked up on the fact that White had tagged Jones in a post on Instagram when the post did not correlate with the heavyweight. One fan replied to White’s comment accusing him of ‘glazing’ Jones.
“If ‘glaze’ means DROP FACTS then yes I guess I’m glazing,” White replied to the fan.
Bizarrely, despite having already gone through it countless times in post-fight press conferences and during interviews, White spoke about it again during Wednesday night’s press conference.
“Did I mention to you guys that Jon Jones is the greatest of all time?” White jokingly questioned at the presser.
“He’s the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world (currently) and he’s the GOAT, you all know this. Numbers don’t lie,” he continued.
MMA reporter, Kevin Iole – who has a good relationship with White – jokingly asked if Jones has pictures of White on his phone and that’s the reason for White’s constant praise.
“I saw that on the internet too (people asking if Jones has pictures of me), are you guys that f*cking stupid? You can’t be that f*cking stupid to think that Jon Jones is not the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world, but maybe you are,” the UFC boss added.
Dana White claims Jon Jones is an ‘active’ fighter
The main reason why the majority of the MMA fanbase believes Jon Jones isn’t the current pound-for-pound number one fighter on the planet is because he has been inactive for the past four years.
Since his 2020 fight against Dominick Reyes, which White even claimed at the time that Reyes won that fight, the 37-year-old has only fought once.
Despite that, White has claimed that Jones is an active fighter, which sparked another argument in the media room.
“When you talk about activity and he’s fought one time (since 2020), but Jon Jones was supposed to fight. If Jon Jones was sitting on the couch and saying, yeah I don’t know when I’m gonna fight again then he’s definitely not in the pound-for-pound discussion right now.
“He was scheduled to fight and he got injured, he is an active fighter, he is absolutely an active fighter,” White claimed.
The promotion is targeting Jones’ fight against Stipe Miocic in November and White admitted that it hasn’t been announced as of yet because the rest of the card has yet to be put together.
- CROSSOVER SUPERFIGHT: Sean O’Malley talks potential future crossover boxing fight against Floyd Mayweather