LAS VEGAS – UFC CEO Dana White has vehemently defended two matters maybe greater than any others over the previous 12 months. The primary, is who the pound-for-pound finest fighter is true now. The second is that his reply to that query, Jon Jones, who he thinks ought to rightfully struggle Stipe Miocic subsequent.
Following Dana White’s Contender Sequence 69 on Tuesday on the UFC Apex, White engaged with reporters in a prolonged, back-and-forth dialogue.
The controversy was respectful however passionate, as White verbally traded with media members, primarily veteran reporters Kevin Iole and John Morgan.
PASADENA, CA – JANUARY 09: TUF Coach, Jon Jones (L) and Dana White, UFC President/UFC Gentle Heavyweight Champion, of the tv present “The Final Fighter” communicate through the FX Networks portion of the 2013 Winter Tv Critics Affiliation Press Tour on the Langham Lodge and Spa on January 9, 2013 in Pasadena, California. (Photograph by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Pictures)
Jones as pound-for-pound No. 1
The 12-plus-minute trade started as White was about to wrap his post-event information convention. He was jokingly requested about Jones’ standing because the “pound-for-pound GOAT.”
The argument is one which White has repeated his stance on more and more in current weeks. The frequency and enthusiasm has amused on-line commenters and meme-creators.
Iole requested, “Does he have photos of you?” to which laughs got here.
“Are you guys that f*cking silly?” White laughed again. “You’ll be able to’t be that f*cking silly to suppose that Jon Jones will not be the pound-for-pound finest fighter on the earth and the GOAT… however possibly you might be?”
White stood as much as depart however then sat again down to have interaction. Eleven extra minutes of dialogue happened thereafter.
“Query me,” White mentioned. “Who’s higher than Jon Jones? Who’s pound-for pound higher than Jon Jones?”
Morgan jumped in and answered, “At what level does inactivity come into play, proper? All of us agree there’s no person higher than Jon Jones. He’s the best of all time. There’s no query about it. However sooner or later, if you’re taking a look at rankings, they do must signify what’s taking place within the group at that second, proper at the moment, and prior to now three years, he’s had one struggle.”
White’s reply to that query revolved across the inactivity not being a selection, however reasonably an damage, which Jones (27-1 MMA, 20-1 UFC) suffered weeks earlier than an preliminary reserving with Miocic (20-4 MMA, 14-4 UFC) scheduled for November 2023. Jones was out of motion for 3 years when he returned to win heavyweight gold vs. Ciryl Gane in March 2023, and he hasn’t fought since. In the meantime, Tom Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) has grow to be interim heavyweight champion, even scoring a uncommon protection of that interim belt in opposition to Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 in July.
“You speak about inactivity and that he’s solely fought one time. Jon Jones was purported to struggle,” White mentioned. “If Jon Jones was sitting on the sofa saying, ‘I don’t know once I’m going to struggle once more,’ then he’s undoubtedly not within the pound-for-pound dialogue proper now. He was scheduled to struggle and he bought injured. He’s an energetic fighter.”
White then introduced up Islam Makhachev, the fighter many media members and followers suppose deserves the pound-for-pound designation. Makhachev (26-1 MMA, 20-1 UFC) has defended the UFC light-weight title 3 times, although two of these have been in opposition to then-featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, and one was a highly-debated resolution. He’s presently ranked No. 1 within the UFC’s official pound-for-pound rankings.
“Islam, many individuals imagine, misplaced to the man (Volkanovski) who’s a weight class beneath him,” White mentioned. “Is that how pound-for-pound works?”
Jones vs. Stipe
White and Iole then went back-and-forth concerning the definition of “energetic” earlier than the dialog pivoted to the reserving between Jones and Miocic.
“Everybody on this room thinks Aspinall is extra highly-rated than Stipe, at this level,” Iole mentioned. “Stipe’s fame is improbable however he has not received a struggle since he beat (Daniel Cormier) – in 4 years. That additionally performs into it as partially an element when you’ve got a man like Aspinall knocking out Serghei Pavlovich in lower than a minute, Curtis Blaydes in lower than a minute, and so forth., and so forth.”
White mentioned he didn’t disagree, however supplied up a special stance and laid out an argument that’s crux was not eager to disrespect Miocic, who missed out on the Jones struggle in late 2023 not due to his personal doing.
“Right here’s the flip facet to that,” White mentioned. “What do I do? The man who’s checked out as the best heavyweight within the UFC, proper? This struggle’s arrange. Jon Jones will get damage. It’s not his fault. He has to attend and return into coaching camp once more. He was coaching. So do I simply yank it away from Stipe and say, ‘Hey, go f*ck your self and sit on the sidelines for 2 extra years’? If I did that you just guys could be like, ‘Oh, you f*cking disrespected the best heavyweight ever,’ so would the f*cking followers. So I ought to simply sh*t on Stipe as a result of Jon bought damage, and never make the struggle that he was already purported to struggle?’”
Iole rebutted that Miocic ought to’ve fought Aspinall in Jones’ absence, reasonably than sit and look forward to the champion.
“That is the struggle (Jones and Miocic) each need,” White mentioned. “What do you do? You don’t present the fellows their respect. I assure you this, if Stipe wins, Stipe goes to retire. This can be Stipe’s final struggle. Are you the media telling me I ought to simply inform Stipe to f*ck off and (say), ‘Good luck to you Stipe. Go trip off into the sundown and struggle some fires and that’s a wrap for you, buddy,” as a result of Jon bought damage? Or do I present this man the respect that I ought to present him and provides them each the struggle that they need? That’s the place I’m in.”
Unsurprisingly, no settlement was reached. White, with a smile, declared Jones’ standing because the pound-for-pound finest fighter as soon as final time earlier than he departed the desk and was changed by beaming UFC contract-earner Malcolm Wellmaker.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – MARCH 04: Jon Jones seems on through the UFC heavyweight championship struggle in opposition to Ciryl Gane of France through the UFC 285 occasion at T-Cellular Enviornment on March 04, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photograph by Chris Graythen/Getty Pictures)
What’s subsequent
Jones and Miocic are “focused” to struggle at UFC 309, an occasion Nov. 16 at Madison Sq. Backyard in New York, White confirmed Tuesday. White mentioned the shortage of formal announcement by the promotion is because of its calendar not being stuffed out till that time.
Aspinall, the promotion’s interim titleholder, defended that championship at UFC 304 in July when he knocked out Curtis Blaydes. It’s unclear what his subsequent aggressive transfer is, although he’s upped his callouts of Jones in current weeks, even creating skit movies in an try and angle for the struggle.
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