In a recent media scrum for Dana White’s Contender Series Dana White and the journalists expressed disagreement over Jon Jones. Dana has steadfastly held throughout his career that Jon Jones is the GOAT of MMA. He’s also continuously expresses his belief that Jon Jones is the pound for pound best fighter on the planet. And in recent times Dana has seemingly gone into overdrive in telling anyone that will listen that Jones is the GOAT and number one pound for pound.
This seems to be a response to blowback about the Stipe vs Jones fight. Many feel as though that fight shouldn’t be happening or if it does happen it shouldn’t be for the belt. Tom Aspinall is the interim champion and clearly the number one in the division so it’s a little strange that Jones vs Aspinall isn’t the priority. Aspinall himself has been vocal about this.
Anyway, it finally seems Dana White is finally getting blowback for this from his own journalists.
Dana White And Journalists Disagree About Jon Jones GOAT Status
The disagreement occured in a media scrum for DWCS where Dana was asked about Jones being the pound for pound GOAT. Dana confidently said “he is the pound for pound best fighter in the world and he is the GOAT and you all know this.” Unsurprisingly Dana is still being firm on his stance. Dana’s response was met by a chorus of laughs from the journalists. One journalist then joking asked “Does he have pictures of you?” to which Dana responded, “I’ve seen that on the internet to.”
Dana then asks, “are you guys that f*cking stupid? 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.” One journalist then said, “He’s not going to talk to any of us either right now.” and Dana asked, “what do you mean?”. The journalist elaborated saying, “If he’s watching this and we’re all saying you know questioning you.” Dana then implored, ” Yeah go ahead question me. Who’s better than Jon Jones? who’s better pound for pound than Jon Jones”
Currently there are fighters better than Jones currently pound for pound. Islam Makhachev, Max Holloway, Alexander Volkanovski to name a few. However, instead of listing different names one journalist asked, “At what point foes activity come into play right? We all agree that 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 organisation at that moment, right at that time. In the past 3 years he’s had one fight.” A very valid point Jon hasn’t been active. Even Jon’s status as the GOAT is questionable.
Dana White Get’s Called Out
A journalist then said that, “And you thought he lost to Reyes” in relation to when Jon was last active. Dana White then responded with a dumbfounded “HUH”. The journalist repeated, “And when he fought Reyes you said you thought Reyes won the fight.” Which is true he said he thought Reyes won in the post fight presser. In response Dana said, ” He didn’t win the fight Jon Jones did.” Which was responded to with “You said you thought he won the fight” The implication being Dana thought Jon lost. Dana’s only response was to look shocked and say, “Who gives a sh*t. I’m not the fucking judges the guy didn’t lose the fight. And the one loss that he has is from a referee who should have never been a referee in a million years. He’s never lost” and went on a tangent about the difficulty of remaining undefeated.
Dana’s first point about Jones technically winning is fine however most people thought Jones lost for good reason. And a loss to Reyes has aged horribly so losing to Reyes even unofficially seems like a good reason to not be the best pound for pound. And mentioning Jones’ only official loss and saying it isn’t a loss is just silly. Jones broke the rules and paid the price he used a technique which was illegal and thus disqualified. That is not the referee’s fault that’s on Jones. There’s also the question of the quality of Jones’ opposition which can be questionable and viewed as a lot of blown up middleweights.
Dana Addresses Activity and Pound For Pound Status
Dana then responds to the question about activity saying “He was scheduled to fight and he got injured. He is an active fighter he is absolutely an active fighter.” which is just incorrect. Regardless id he was scheduled to fight he’s still being and has been inactive.
Dana said, “And when you talk about pound for pound and I don’t want to sh*t on any of my other guys. But who is it right now Islam? Islam many people believe lost to a guy who was a weight class below him. Is that how pound for pound works? Many people including people in this room.” Which is a strange argument considering how Dana seemed insistent it doesn’t matter what people think just what the judges rule. This also ignores that the fight was very close and how Islam decimated Volk in the rematch. A journalist then said, “He got the win It doesn’t matter what we say” referencing Dana’s earlier argument.
Dana replied to that saying, “you’re absolutely right. But he fought a weight class down he fought a weight class down. Jon Jones fought a weight class up and let me tell you what. When all the guys were in there you had the Jon Jones, the Anderson Silva’s, the George Saint Pierre’s I know who didn’t want to fight who and who did want fight who. And Jon Jones has always been willing to fight everybody you know what I mean.” Firstly Islam didn’t fight a weight class down Volk fought a weight class up. And with Jones being willing to fight everyone also not the case. Refusing the Sonnen fight, the Reyes rematch, not fighting Stipe sooner, and blatantly ducking Aspinall.
Dana Outlines His One Issue With Jones
Dana then said, “The only real mark with me with Jon Jones is and it was his f*cking team that he was with at that time. Who I can tell you 50 f*cking stories about. The Chael Sonnen fight when they were refusing to fight Chael Sonnen you know what I mean. But other than that Jon Jones has fought everybody that’s ever been put in front of him. He went through murderers row you know. When you look at who he fought at the time when he fought them. Look at the record of them guys combined that he fought and the list goes on and on.”
So he does bring up that Jon refused to fight Chael but it’s strange that’s Dana’s only issue with Jon. Without delving into Jon’s awful personal life which Dana should take issue with there’s also other things. Mainly the failed PED tests which Dana tries to sweep under the rug and ignore.
A journalist then replied saying, “That makes him the greatest fighter of all time not the greatest active fighter because he is not an active fighter. He has fought 1 time in over 4 years.” Which is true Jones isn’t active. Dana then bizarrely says, “Jon Jones is an active fighter he just got injured he was going in” which was interrupted by “he hasn’t fought”. Dana continues saying “He was going to fight at heavyweight again. A weight class above. And he f*cking destroyed the guy who was the best guy in the division.” Again not true Gane wasn’t the best in division Ngannou was and even when he left there was the argument for Aspinall and Pavlovich.
Activity Comes Up Again
The journalist in relation to the injury said, “it’s an unfortunate thing and if he was active we’d say he’s number 1”. Which is fair but even if he was active and fought Stipe that doesn’t necessarily make him pound for pound number one. Stipe hasn’t fought for years, is physically diminished, and clearly past his prime so a win over washed Stipe shouldn’t do much for Jones’ resume.
Dana White again repeats the nonsense about Jones being active and injury being the reason for inactivity. One fight 18 months ago does not cancel out almost 4 years on not fighting at all. Dana not getting this had the concept explained to him again.
A journalist said, “If he fought and we don’t put him number one then you have that argument to say ‘you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about’. We are all I think everybody in this room is saying he is the greatest fighter of all time. And I think most people in this room would say he is the number one pound for pound of all time. But, you can’t just sit on your laurels something you did 3,4,5 years ago. He hasn’t fought in eighteen months and it’s going to be twenty months by the time he gets in the ring. So that’s assuming he gets in the ring we don’t know if he’s going to be healthy.” Again true.
He continues saying, ” So, all I think everyone is saying the argument against you is the fact that most people who do pound for pound lists have a one year cut off. Unless they had a fight scheduled at the time. So, Jon fell out of pound for pound list because it was over a year and he didn’t have a fight scheduled.”
Not Understanding Activity
Dana White then replies saying, “he did have a fight scheduled. He did. He did have a fight scheduled. and he got injured. Now he does have a fight scheduled now.” Dana was then asked, “How many time do we ask you ‘Dana is he fighting?I don’t know what’s happening with Jon Jones. Just like what you say about Conor.” Which has been true a lot of the time with Jones. Particularly during those years when he didn’t fight anyone.
Dana then said, “I did not say I don’t know what’s happening with Jon Jones. What I did say was Jon Jones is injured and he’s recovering from his injury. F*cking common sense everybody knows that. This guy just said he knows he’s fighting in f*cking November when will I announce it. I said I’ll announce it when the whole card is. But everybody knows he’s fighting. It’s f*cking silly and I don’t know what this game is with everybody. But Jon Jones is the pound for pound best fighter in the world. Until this f*cking guy. And he has been active. What did you say he hasn’t fought in eighteen months since the Ciryl Gane fight.”
A journalist then interrupted and said “eighteen months and four years”. Dana doesn’t understand that Jon prior to the Gane fight for four years and after that has fought once. That is not being active. Dana continued saying, “Eighteen months months. He moved up and destroyed Gane destroyed him in a weight class above him. Who was the number one guy in the world in the UFC. And then we book another fight he’s training for the fight blows his shoulder out which means he’s still active. Get’s surgery, recovering, and is scheduled to fight in November. He is an active fighter”
The Conversation Moves On
A journalsit then said, “I think it’s kind of like Bill Clinton’s definition of ‘is'” implying it’s inaccurate which would be correct. Dana responded saying, “I don’t even know what that means. But, he has been an active fighter he’s active. It’s not like Jon Jones was not active and not accepting fights.” The word Dana should be using is ‘was’. Jon was an active fighter however in recent time he has not been active.
The discussion then moves to Stipe vs Jon and how that also plays into disagreements about Jon’s status and Aspinall being more deserving of a title shot. However that is covered in a different article.
So, it seems Dana will not budge on how he views Jon Jones status as being the current best pound for pound. Even though despite all his claims Jones is not an active fighter. There’s also something which isn’t brought up which is the skill gap between heavyweight and divisions like lightweight, featherweight, etc. The level of competition is much higher there. So succeeding in those divisions is a lot harder and more impressive.
Regardless Dana will cling to his views until the day he dies. Let us know your thoughts about Jones status all time and where he should be currently pound for pound.
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
