Dana White believes that a fighter’s life and career could’ve been drastically different if it wasn’t for their team.
While the UFC president has got one of the biggest weekends of his career ahead of him, there’s another event on the horizon that will top this.
White doesn’t intend on looking at fights for the UFC’s event at the White House until early next year but that hasn’t stopped it from being a huge talking point.
An event of this magnitude clearly needs to have some major star power topping the card, which doesn’t leave too many options for the headliner.
White recently denied Jon Jones’ pitch for returning at this event again before going on to talk about an instance that is related to ‘Bones’ regarding fighter negotiations.
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Dana White believes that Holly Holm’s team ‘ruined her life’ by deciding against an instant rematch with Ronda Rousey
The main reason why Dana White doesn’t think that Jon Jones will be fighting at the White House is because he wants fighters that he knows he can rely on for this event.
While there have been multiple issues with ‘Bones’ ahead of events in the past, one of the most famous examples left White furious after he had to cancel an entire UFC event due to Jones’ team advising him not to fight.
The UFC president spoke about this during a recent appearance on The Jim Rome Show before telling the story of how the same people that were advising Jones had a huge negative impact on another fighter.
“These are the same guys that had Holly Holm, and in my opinion, ruined her life,” White said.
White recalled how after Holm shocked the world by dethroning Ronda Rousey at UFC 193, there was ‘unbelievable’ money on the table for an immediate rematch.
He claims that Holm’s team turned this fight down, choosing instead to fight Miesha Tate for the same money that they were already making.
“So, big drama goes on between us all and I said, ‘So you want to fight the second baddest woman in the world for the same money?’. ‘Yes, that’s what we want’.”
White went on to say that he correctly predicted how the fight between Holm and Tate would play out at UFC 196, but the defending champion’s team didn’t listen.
“I told them in that meeting, you can ask my matchmakers, Lorenzo Fertitta, I said, ‘She’s going to lose by choke. She’s going to choke her out,’ and that’s exactly what happened. For the same money instead of fighting Ronda for life-changing money. That would have changed her life.”
Dana White labelled Jon Jones’ coach a ‘sport killer’ after the UFC 151 controversy
While Dana White placed some of the blame on Jon Jones for his decision to not fight at UFC 151 against a replacement opponent, Chael Sonnen, he was incredibly critical of the champion’s coach, Greg Jackson.
The UFC president announced that the event was cancelled in a media call, while putting Jackson on blast for being a “sport killer”.
“Greg Jackson told Jones there’s no way you take the Chael Sonnen fight on eight days notice. Said it would be the biggest mistake of his career. Greg Jackson is a f—— sport killer. I’ve never heard anything like this in my entire life.”
White went on to say that he believed that this would have an impact on how Jones was perceived as a champion.
“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.”