Dana White once again clashes with the press over Jon Jones’ status as the best pound-for-pound fighter and greatest boxer of all time.
This is becoming a weekly affair with the UFC CEO being grilled by fighters, fans and the media over his refusal to grant interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall the next title fight against Jones, who has not defended the undisputed belt since winning it in March 2023.
“He’s the best fighter in the world, pound for pound, and he’s the GOAT,” White explained. “And you all know that. Numbers don’t lie.”
“Are you guys that damn stupid?” he replied when a reporter joked that Jones must have incriminating pictures of him. “You can’t be so damn stupid to think that Jon Jones isn’t the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world and the GOAT… Who’s better than Jon Jones? Who’s pound-for-pound better?”
“These kids that come here and are undefeated, you know how hard it is to stay undefeated? Jon Jones has been through the killer row. If you talk about activity, he fought once (in four years), but Jon Jones should fight. If Jon Jones was sitting on the couch and said, ‘Yeah, 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 should be fighting and he got hurt. He’s an active fighter.”
“He’s absolutely an active fighter,” White continued. “And when you talk pound for pound, and I don’t want to pick on any of my other guys, but who is it right now? Islam? A lot of people think Islam lost to the guy who’s a weight class below him. Is that how pound for pound works? He fought a weight class lower. Jon Jones fought a weight class higher.”
“And I’ll tell you what: When all the guys were there, Jon Jones, Anderson Silvas and George Saint Pierres, I knew who wanted to fight who and who didn’t. Jon Jones was always ready to fight anyone.”
“The only real gripe I had with Jon Jones was the damn team he was on at the time,” he said. “I could tell you 50 damn stories about the fight with Chael Sonnen when they refused to fight Chael Sonnen.”
“But other than that, Jon Jones has fought everyone who has ever come before him. He’s been through the ranks. And when you look at who he fought back then, you look at the record of the guys he’s fought overall. The list is endless. That makes him the greatest fighter of all time.”
White then defended Stipe Miocic, who has not fought since 2021 and has not won a fight since 2020.
“A guy who’s considered the greatest heavyweight in the UFC,” he said of Miocic. “This fight is scheduled, Jon Jones gets hurt. Not his fault. He has to wait and go back to damn training camp. He’s been training. So am I just going to snatch the fight away from Stipe and say, ‘Hey, fuck off and stay on the bench for two more years,’ or do you know what I mean?”
“If I did that, you’d say, ‘Oh, you fucking disrespected the greatest heavyweight of all time. So would the fucking fans. So should I just give a shit on Stipe because Jon got hurt and not make the fight he was supposed to have anyway?'”
“So I have two legends in a sport who want to fight each other. These guys are lined up. One gets hurt and this is the fight they both want. What do you do? Don’t you give the guys the respect they deserve?”
“I guarantee you, if Stipe wins, he’s going to quit. This will be Stipe’s last fight. So are you, the media, telling me to just tell Stipe to fuck off and ‘Good luck, Stipe, ride off into the sunset? Go fight some fires and you’re done, buddy.’ Because Jon got hurt. Or am I going to give this guy the respect I should give him and give them both the fight they want? You know, that’s the position I’m in.”
“We had this thing prepared,” White concluded. “And again, if Stipe was 32, then yes, we probably would have done this. But this is probably Stipe’s last fight, win or lose. And I’m not going to disrespect the guy.”
Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic is currently scheduled for UFC 309 on November 16 at Madison Square Garden. And unless someone gets injured, don’t expect the UFC or Dana White to change those plans.
