Jon Jones isn’t the only man coming under fire after confirmation of his retirement.
The long ‘will he or won’t he’ saga of the GOAT contender’s UFC heavyweight title reign reached its disappointing conclusion on Saturday, as Dana White announced that Jones has retired.
That news comes after months of back-and-forth between the division’s two champions, as Jones continued to dismiss Tom Aspinall and their logical unification fight.
Many urged White to act, with close to 200,000 even signing a viral petition calling for the UFC to strip Jones. Instead, the UFC boss made a guarantee that has not aged well.
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Dana White made ‘100 percent’ guarantee that Jon Jones would fight Tom Aspinall
It didn’t take long for Jones to reject talk of fighting Aspinall after his victory over Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 last November.
While some were already calling for the Rochester native to make a definitive decision on retirement, concluding that to be the likeliest path, White saw things differently.
The following month, during his press conference after UFC Tampa, the UFC CEO made a rare “100 percent” guarantee that Jones would fight Aspinall.
“Jon Jones, behind the scenes, is not a guy that turns down fights,” White said.
“Yeah, I’ll say 100 percent,” he added when asked if he ‘guaranteed’ fans would see the fight.
Suffice it to say, those words have come back to haunt White.
Dana White comes under fire from fans after failed Jon Jones guarantee
It seems that plenty of fans haven’t forgotten White’s failed promise.
In fact, some are so agitated that they have even been calling for the UFC CEO to follow Jones out the door and retire as the promotion’s chief.
“Hey @danawhite. We’re good. You can go.”
“Fumbled both Ilia-Islam & Jones-Aspinall. Also fumbled GSP vs Silva or Silva vs Jones.”
“Dana is washed. Sad truth.”
“Should have stripped Jones the second Jones said he wanted to fight Grandpa Stipe over Aspinall. Company is run by idiots right now.”
“Where did he learn to make deals?”
“Dana going down as the man who let Jon p— all over him for almost 20 years.”
But White also had his backers, who leapt to the UFC CEO’s defense.
“You people are idiots. The man built the UFC.”
“Sometimes it just doesn’t work out.”
“Imagine telling a guy that created the thing you are crying about, that he can leave.”