Dana White continues to debate reporters over Jon Jones’ P4P status: “Are you guys that f*cking stupid?”
Jon Jones is the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world and you’re not going to convince Dana White otherwise.
After another successful episode of Dana White’s Contender Series that saw one of the best fights in DWCS history, the UFC CEO sat down to address members of the media. While the questions started simple enough, much of them surrounding the evening’s action, things quickly took a turn as soon as someone in the room dropped Jon Jones’ name.
“He’s the No. 1 best pound-for-pound fighter in the world and the GOAT, and you all know this,” White said. “Numbers don’t lie.”
MMA journalist Kevin Iole then asked White, “Does he have pictures of you?” which generated laughs around the room.
“Are you guys that f*cking stupid?” White laughed back. “You can’t be that f*cking stupid to think that Jon Jones is not the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world and the GOAT… but maybe you are?”
White stood up from the table seemingly ready to leave, but quickly sat back down to re-engage with everyone and continue discussing his favorite debate topic.
“Question me,” White said. “Who’s better than Jon Jones? Who’s pound-for-pound better than Jon Jones?”
John Morgan, host of The MMA Road Show, jumped in and answered, “At what point does inactivity come into play, right? We all agree there is nobody better than Jon Jones. He is the greatest of all time. There’s no question about it. But at some point, when you’re looking at rankings, they do have to represent what’s happening in the organization at that moment, right at that time, and in the past three years, he’s had one fight.”
White responded by noting that Jon Jones’ inactivity was not a choice. ‘Bones’ was originally scheduled to defend the undisputed heavyweight title against Miocic last November in Madison Square Garden before a pectoral injury forced him to bow out of the bout.
“You talk about inactivity and that he’s only fought one time. Jon Jones was supposed to fight,” White said. “If Jon Jones was sitting on the couch saying, ‘I don’t know when I’m going to 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’s an active fighter.”
Dana White disputes Islam Makhachev’s Status as the No. 1 P4P fighter in the world
White then brought up current lightweight champion Islam Makhachev, the man who currently sits atop the P4P rankings.
“Islam, many people believe, lost to the guy [Volkanovski] who’s a weight class below him,” White said. “Is that how pound-for-pound works?”
White and Iole continued to go back and forth over their differing definitions of being an “active fighter” before switching gears to the Jones vs. Miocic booking which White all but confirmed will headline the promotion’s pay-per-view event in November.
“Everyone in this room thinks Aspinall is more highly-rated than Stipe, at this point,” Iole said. “Stipe’s reputation is fantastic but he has not won a fight since he beat [Daniel Cormier] – in four years. That also plays into it as partially a factor when you have a guy like Aspinall knocking out Sergei Pavlovich in less than a minute, Curtis Blaydes in less than a minute, etc., etc.”
White didn’t necessarily disagree with what Iole had to say regarding Aspinall but offered up an explanation from his viewpoint, suggesting that ripping away Miocic’s fight with Jones would be disrespectful to the consensus heavyweight GOAT, especially when their previously scheduled clash fell apart through no fault of his own.
“Here’s the flip side to that,” White said. “What do I do? The guy who’s looked at as the greatest heavyweight in the UFC, right? This fight’s set up. Jon Jones gets hurt. It’s not his fault. He has to wait and go back into training camp again. He was training. So do I just yank it away from Stipe and say, ‘Hey, go f*ck yourself and sit on the sidelines for two more years’? If I did that you guys would be like, ‘Oh, you f*cking disrespected the greatest heavyweight ever,’ so would the f*cking fans. So I should just sh*t on Stipe because Jon got hurt, and not make the fight that he was already supposed to fight?'”
Iole pointed out that Miocic could have fought Aspinall instead of sitting on the shelf for another year while waiting for ‘Bones’ to come back.
“This is the fight [Jones and Miocic] both want,” White said. “What do you do? You don’t show the guys their respect. I guarantee you this, if Stipe wins, Stipe is going to retire. This will be Stipe’s last fight. Are you the media telling me I should just tell Stipe to f*ck off and [say], ‘Good luck to you Stipe. Go ride off into the sunset and fight some fires and that’s a wrap for you, buddy,’ because Jon got hurt? Or do I show this guy the respect that I should show him and give them both the fight that they want? That’s the position I’m in.”
Before removing himself from the situation, White flashed a smile and once again reminded the room that Jon Jones is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
