The rumor from backstage at yesterday’s UFC 152 weigh-ins was that UFC president Dana White was not in a good mood, but Fuel TV’s Ariel Helwani still managed to get a brief conversation with him.
White didn’t make it to the previous day’s pre-fight press conference and it turns out there was a good reason for that.
“Last week I got a little cocky talking smack about my Meniere’s Disease, and it showed up again and showed me who’s the boss was. So it put me down since Wednesday,” White revealed.
Luckily he seems to be getting better now, and that means he fully intended to still have a private meeting with Jon Jones following the weigh-ins to discuss face-to-face for the first time what went on before, during and after the cancelation of UFC 151.
Despite his illness, White appears to be well aware of what Jones has been saying in the media over the past few days – in particular saying that he didn’t know that UFC 151 would be canceled if he turned down a last-minute fight with Chael Sonnen – and he’s not happy about it.
“I’m actually glad that he did say that. I don’t think he would have said that if I was there. So today we’re going to be face-to-face and we’ll see what he says and he doesn’t say. The fact that he said he didn’t know the show would be canceled is false. I did tell him the show would be canceled.
“I think he takes this thing, or is acting like he’s taking it, lightly, which he shouldn’t be. The fact that the fight was canceled isn’t a joke. It’s not funny and a lot of people were affected by it. There was a lot of collateral damage that happened with the cancelling of the show. We’ll see how this goes.”
Recently Jones indicated that he wasn’t particularly pleased with the idea of finally having this overdue meeting with White just 24 hours before his fight, and I have to admit that I agree with him.
If it was just a case of the two shaking hands and burying the hatchet then that’s fine, but if there’s still legitimate grievances that White want’s aired then he should have waited until after the show to have that conversation.
Check out the full interview with Fuel TV below.
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