Dana White: Jon Jones' UFC P4P ranking shows voters 'know absolutely f*cking nothing about fighting'
Jon Jones currently sits at No. 3 in the UFC’s pound-for-pound rankings, and that, to Dana White, is worth scorching the earth over.
Lightweight champion Islam Makhachev is at No. 1, and behind him is light heavyweight champ and former middleweight titleholder Alex Pereira. UFC CEO White has been banging the Jones No. 1 drum for a while, which he admits flies in the face of the history of his very public spats with the current heavyweight and former light heavyweight champ.
But White doesn’t care whom people put at Nos. 2 or 3 – as long as Jones is atop the chart.
“Jon Jones is ranked No. 3 pound-for-pound in the (UFC),” White recently told longtime combat sports writer Kevin Iole. “(That is the most) f*cking ridiculous, embarrassing, stupid, know-nothing-about-f*cking-fighting ranking of all f*cking time.”
Much of the debate over Jones’ placement has to do with his inactivity. He won the heavyweight title in March 2023, putting him on the short list of fighters to hold belts in two UFC weight classes. He was set to return in November 2023, but suffered a training injury. Now Jones is expected to fight former heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic in November at Madison Square Garden.
Miocic lost the heavyweight title to Francis Ngannou in March 2021 and has been inactive ever since. By virtue of his record three consecutive UFC heavyweight title defenses and two reigns as champion, he’s regarded by many as the greatest heavyweight in history. But it will be 44 months between fights if the November date comes to fruition – nearly four years.
But Jones’ win over Ciryl Gane for the heavyweight strap is his only fight since early 2020, which has critics asking how someone with one fight in 4.5 years can be a valid No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter.
“Jon Jones is still an active fighter,” White said. “He beat Cyril Gane. He got injured. He was supposed to fight. He’s going to fight again in November. Jon Jones is the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world, period. End of story. Whoever you want to call, Islam, Pereira No. 2-3, all good. To have anybody above Jon Jones right now just goes to show that you know absolutely f*cking nothing about combat sports and fighting.”
The UFC’s rankings, including the pound-for-pound list, are voted on by combat sports media members on a panel chosen by the UFC. MMA Junkie was asked at those rankings’ inception to take part, but declined. USA TODAY Sports and MMA Junkie have their own MMA rankings. Jones is third on that list, as well – though USAT/MMAJ’s rankings have Pereira No. 1 and Makhachev No. 2.
Tom Aspinall won an interim heavyweight title after Jones got injured and his return timetable was revealed to be a minimum of eight months. He defended that interim belt with a quick finish of Curtis Blaydes a week ago, and the consensus opinion is he should be fighting Jones to unify the belts, rather than wait for Jones and Miocic.
White thinks Aspinall against the winner makes things more interesting, though.
“This title fight (with Jones and Miocic) was supposed to happen a long time ago. You know all the things that happened, from injuries to whatever else, they got in the way,” White said. “You’ve got two sides of the coin. Everybody’s talking about, ‘Oh, Dana doesn’t respect this guy’ and ‘He doesn’t do this,’ ‘He doesn’t do that.’ I’m showing both of these guys the respect – they want to fight each other. It’s a fight that they both want to happen – total respect fight. I think they both deserve it. I get it: Everybody wants to see Tom Aspinall (vs. Jones). But let me tell you what: After Stipe and Jon fight, whoever wins, the Aspinall fight’s even bigger.”
But when all is said and done, White thinks ranking Jones below Pereira and Makhachev is the result of people lashing out at Jones the person and not looking only at Jones the fighter. Outside the cage, Jones has had a myriad of arrests, legal run-ins, positive drug tests and was stripped of the 205-pound title multiple times by the UFC.
“Everything that I’ve been saying, these are f*cking facts. These are facts,” White said. “It’s not like me and Jon Jones have this unbelievable relationship like I have with Ronda (Rousey) and Chuck Liddell and Conor (McGregor) and some of these people that have fought in the past. We know this is not the case. What I’m saying about Jon Jones is undebatable – undebatable what this guy has accomplished in his career. If he beats Stipe and he comes out and fights Tom Aspinall and beats him … It’s already undeniable. I don’t care how much you dislike Jon Jones for what he’s done or what he’s said. This isn’t about personally who is Jon Jones, and do you like him. We’re talking about the baddest dude who ever walked the face of the earth in combat sports already. If he goes out and beats Tom Aspinall, he cements his legacy as the greatest fighter of all time.
“… The other thing about Jon Jones, when you talk about inactivity, any fighter in the history of fighting, including the guy who you consider a god and I consider a god, Muhammad Ali was never the same again after his three-year layoff. And Muhammad Ali wasn’t doing bad things to himself like Jon Jones was, and Jon Jones comes back and looks even better.”
When looking at Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) conversations in MMA, Jones likely always will hold a strong argument as the best ever. But most people look at a pound-for-pound list differently than a GOAT discussion and treat pound-for-pound as the best right now – at this moment in time.
To wit: 15 years ago, conversation about the sport’s best pound-for-pound fighter regularly centered around then-WEC bantamweight champion Miguel Torres. At the time, it was a reasonable conversation – and one trumpeted by many. It was not dissimilar to when Demetrious Johnson was atop many peoples’ lists. But losses and inactivity eventually pushed Torres out of the conversation, and a new haute couture name surfaced at the top of the list. Then another. Then another. Such is how lists like those tend to work.
Jones has fought nine times in the past 10 years and just once since February 2020. In that same time, Makhachev went 8-0, including 4-0 in title fights with bonuses in all four, including a double bonus night. Also in that same time, Pereira returned to MMA after a 4.5-year kickboxing layoff and went 9-1 and won titles in two weight classes. Both would seem to have reasonable cases to be considered No. 1 ahead of Jones and his 1-0 run over that same stretch.
White in the past has made a point of saying fighters who sit out and wait for certain fights run the risk of opportunities passing them by. Jones’ current injury layoff helps his cause, but he was idle for three years after he left light heavyweight to move to heavyweight. That time included a contract dispute with the UFC during which White said he couldn’t even work with Jones personally on it and left it to other executives. But a rough estimate seems to be about a quarter of Jones’ inactive time since he vacated the 205-pound title is injury driven, but the rest he certainly had some control over.
Saying Jones shouldn’t be punished on the list for his inactivity is one take on it, but that also then forces a subscription to a theory that Makhachev and Pereira shouldn’t be rewarded for their successes, which doesn’t seem very sportsmanlike.
But White appears to be digging in his proverbial heels to go to bat for Jones on a list that is speculative and opinion-based.
“It’s undebatable. It’s undebatable. Anybody who even tries to debate this with me, you’re just hating on Jon Jones and you don’t like him as a person,” White said. “And I get it. But it’s not about whether you like him or don’t like him or whatever. It’s based on facts and what he’s done in his career.”