There was plenty for Dana White to talk about in his UFC 318 post-fight interview after Max Holloway successfully defended his ‘BMF’ title and Dustin Poirier retired, but the biggest bombshell came when the conversation turned to Jon Jones.
Former heavyweight champion Jones only recently retired, but then had a change of heart within the space of a week after President Trump revealed that plans were in the works to host a one-of-a-kind UFC event on the grounds of The White House in Washington D.C.
Jones has since confirmed that his decision to return to the UFC’s drug-testing pool was purely down to wanting to fight on that card, but White has now shut down the possibility of that happening.
“You know how I felt about him,” Said of Jones when asked about him fighting on the White House card. “I can’t risk putting him in big positions—in a big spot—and have something go wrong.
“Especially the White House card.”
Interestingly, that appears to be a change of heart from White given that just a week ago he told the Full Send podcast that Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall was his “dream fight” for the White House event.
White’s new stance on the matter is entirely understandable for a laundry list of reasons though.
For one thing, Jones has teased big fights in the past at heavyweight, like fighting Francis Ngannou and Tom Aspinall, only to not go through with it when push came to shove.
However, White is also likely thinking back to previous blockbuster fights involving Jones that have collapsed in dramatic fashion over the years.
That includes the infamous UFC 151 event in 2012, which White has described as one of his all-time lows after the show had to be cancelled entirely When Jones opponent Dan Henderson got injured and ‘Bones’ refused to fight Chael Sonnen on short-notice instead.
There was also the UFC 187 incident in 2015 where Jones fight with Anthony Johnson was scrapped after the champion became the subject of a police investigation due to fleeing the scene of a hit-and-run incident that left a pregnant women in hospital, resulting in him being stripped of the light-heavyweight title and suspended.
Remarkably, Jones then came close to completely derailing one of the biggest events of all-time, UFC 200 in 2016, when he failed a dug test just a few days before his headlining title rematch with Daniel Cormier, leading to the bout being cancelled.
Though the rematch with Cormier would take place a year later, with Jones winning by KO, he would then be stripped of the title yet again and suspended after failing another drug test post-fight.
And even right up to the present day Jones continues to be a liability, to the extent that within 24 hours of him retiring last month it emerged that he is currently under investigation over another hit and run incident that took place back in February.
With that track record it’s clear why White wouldn’t want Jones anywhere near what’s expected to be an unusually high-profile, historic and politically charged UFC: White House event next year.
