Greg Jackson: I will not say a bad thing about Dana White, I respect him
With Dan Henderson out of the now cancelled UFC 151, the promotion had sought to replace him with former Middleweight contender Chael Sonnen. According to Dana White, UFC employees worked feverishly into Wednesday night and Thursday morning and as we all know, Jones turned down the fight. White broke the news on a special media call: “I was going to do this call, and this was obviously going to be a much different call this morning, but the one thing that I never thought in a million years would happen, happened. Jon Jones said, ‘I’m not fighting Chael Sonnen with eight days notice”.
One of the targets of UFC President Dana White‘s ire was Jon Jones‘ coach, Greg Jackson. White made it very clear at yesterday’s press conference call that he felt Coach Jackson’s counsel of his fighter was to blame, which ultimately lead to the cancellation of the entire card: “I’ll go on the record saying, this guy is a f&#&ing sport killer! This guy is from another planet. I’ve never even seen anything like it in my life.”
Jackson responded to White’s comments yesterday: “It was actually three days notice; it’s not eight days notice because you don’t train the last week of a fight camp. That’s when you do media and weight cutting; there’s no real training going on there. When I was asked if fighting Sonnen for a world title on three days notice was a smart idea, I said no.”
Coach Jackson continued: “Chael is in a great position in that he’d been training with Dan Henderson for this fight, getting him ready, and he’s in shape. He knows the plan on what they’re gonna do to get around Jon. So he’s ready to go. It’s not like he’s stepping off the couch and into a fight. So taking a fight of that caliber with a guy that’s ready, on three days notice, for a world championship, without any time to prepare, is just not professional to me.”
Jackson claims that he was unaware that the cancellation of a single bout would lead to the entire event, being called off. However, he still stands by his decision: “I don’t think I would’ve changed my opinion about it. That still doesn’t sound like a good idea at all. I was giving my opinion on if that was a good fight or not. Sonnen is no joke. He’s a great, great fighter.”
Jackson has a vested interest in Jones being successful, retaining the belt, and forwarding his brand. To his credit, he did not take the bait and fire back at White for his comments: “I won’t say a bad thing about Dana White. I respect him and I’m sorry he feels that way.”
