Dana White has had a somewhat rocky relationship with some of the UFC’s biggest stars over the years.
Though the UFC president is always quick to call the promotion’s current heavyweight champion the greatest of all time, things have rarely been plain sailing between them.
For as much as White praises Jon Jones, they’ve had their issues from time to time even if this hasn’t stopped them from continuing to do business.
The MMA world is currently waiting to find out whether Jones will face Tom Aspinall in a huge title unification clash for the heavyweight division.
During Jones’ light heavyweight days, his decision to not take a fight forced White and the UFC into doing something that they hadn’t done before.
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Dana White called out Jon Jones and his coach after they turned down UFC 151 fight
Jon Jones was scheduled to defend his title in the main event of UFC 151 in Las Vegas where he would face the former two-division PRIDE champion, Dan Henderson.
The rest of the card wasn’t totally stacked but the plans suffered a big hit when Henderson suffered an MCL injury that would force him out of the fight.
Fortunately, the UFC were able to find a replacement on just eight days’ notice with Chael Sonnen agreeing to step up and face Jones.
‘Bones’ wasn’t so keen on this idea and declined the matchup, choosing to fight several weeks later at UFC 152 instead rather than giving Sonnen an opportunity.
Though the likes of Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman had made offers to save the card by moving up to light heavyweight, the UFC made the call to cancel the event entirely.
The promotion didn’t even rename their next PPV event as a result meaning that UFC 151 simply doesn’t exist.
Dana White placed the blame for the event being cancelled on both Jones and his coach Greg Jackson who had tried to talk him out of taking the Sonnen fight on short notice.
Jones would go on to face Vitor Belfort at UFC 152 several weeks later before he stopped Sonnen in the first round the following April at UFC 159.
White gave his reaction to the situation during a media call where he made the news official.
“So this is probably one of my all-time lows. For the first time in 11 years, we’re going to cancel an event. The one thing that I never thought in a million years would happen happened. Jon Jones said, ‘I’m not fighting Chael Sonnen on eight days’ notice.”
White went on to criticize Jackson for being a “sport-killer” before stating that this wouldn’t do good things for Jones’ public perception.
“He has been a champion who hasn’t been very popular. I don’t think this is going to do wonders for his popularity. As for the relationship with us, me and Lorenzo (Fertitta) are both disgusted.”
Jon Jones has been at the center of some truly chaotic fight weeks
Specifically in his first light heavyweight title run, whatever controversy Jon Jones caused, he usually made up for it with his performances inside the Octagon.
‘Bones’ put away both Vitor Belfort and Chael Sonnen to put UFC 151 behind him before his classic war with Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 165.
However, along with this, the UFC 200 main event cancellation and the moving of UFC 232, Jones has given the UFC plenty of headaches on short notice over the years.
A caution to fans that are wanting to see him fight Tom Aspinall in the near future: Jones’ fight weeks have been known to feature a lot of drama in the past.