Roundtable: Why is Dana White so obsessed with Jon Jones in the pound-for-pound debate?

Dana White is Jon Jones’ No. 1 fan.

The relationship between the UFC boss and arguably the greatest athlete to ever compete in professional fighting is complicated, to say the least. But recent months have seen White put an incredible amount of time and energy into convincing everyone that Jones is indisputably No. 1 when it comes to discussing who is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

Jones has never truly lost, but his 2023 fight with Ciryl Gane was his first since February 2020 and he hasn’t fought since, which raises two questions: Is it fair to deny him the No. 1 spot on the pound-for-pound list due to inactivity, and, if so, why is White so steadfast in his defense of Jones’ position? The MMA Fighting crew has been as befuddled as everyone else when it comes to understanding White’s motivations, so Alexander K. Lee, Damon Martin, and Shaun Al-Shatti decided to sit down and toss out a few theories as to why Jones has become White’s sacred cow.

Al-Shatti: It’s really something, isn’t it? All of this. Never did I think the saga to reach UFC 309 would reach such farcical proportions that MMA as a whole — a community notorious for not being able to agree on anything — would unite under a unified front to bully Jon Jones into fighting Tom Aspinall (and potentially ruin the one thing he values most about his undefeated legacy), and by proxy, force Dana White to quadruple down on defending the man he once penned a whole damn press release about just to tear him to shreds. Seriously, we’ve come a long way from 763 words of outright questioning Jones’ manhood to suddenly propping “Bones” up as the second coming of the Messiah every other week.

As this topic continues to spiral even further into the absurd, I have to think two primary factors are driving it. The first is that White is in far too deep to relent now. What may have started as an offhand tangent at a particularly bizarre time has now ballooned into something much bigger than it has any real right to be. There’s zero chance a character as stubborn as White will back out now — and that applies tenfold if means gifting a win to his least favorite people on the planet (the media).

But the second factor, and likely the genesis of all of this, is that White thinks he’s actually doing the one thing he’s always begged to do: Be a promoter. It was clear to anyone with eyeballs that Jones vs. Miocic wasn’t the fight fans wanted to see when it was first booked in 2023, and it’s become even clearer to anyone with eyeballs that Jones vs. Miocic has only engorged in unpopularity as 2024 has dragged on. Jones’ demands were more of an annoyance than anything last year; now they’re genuinely ruining an otherwise compelling division. But White’s job until Nov. 19 is still to convince folks why they should care about UFC 309, and for most of his life as a public figure, fans have followed White’s words as law.

In that way, this continual Jones coddling comes off as a prolonged justification for a fight White knows no one wants to see but his company nonetheless intends to make. It’s just that, for the first time in a long time, the UFC boss’ usual playbook isn’t working as it ordinarily does. The more White commits to the bit (and the more Jones tweets through it at 2 a.m. to let you know he definitely isn’t bothered), the more ridiculous this saga becomes and the more voraciously the MMA fan base revolts against what its being fed.

It’s OK though, because honestly? All of this is pretty hilarious.

Martin: Have you ever had to sit through one of those wildly uncomfortable family get-togethers where at least one person has to spout off with an opinion on politics, religion, or some other touchy subject that erupts into a huge argument, food spilled, a table turned over, and at least one person either ostracized or even disowned by the end of it? Think of that brilliant scene from The Bear season 2 when Mikey got into an argument with his mother’s boyfriend during Christmas dinner and started launching forks at him.

For our purposes, put Dana White in Bob Odenkirk’s role as Lee and the MMA media are throwing forks at the UFC CEO just hoping to get a different response than the one we’ve already gotten time after time after time and he’s promising that we’re going to get f*cking rocked.

If you haven’t figured it out already, White believes Jon Jones is not only the greatest fighter who’s ever lived, but he’s also the current pound-for-pound best fighter on the planet. And you know what? He’s right.

Now, before your head explodes, allow me to explain. White is right because pound-for-pound rankings are totally subjective, there’s no criteria to follow, and really it’s just a list made up to start arguments like these so he’s entitled to that opinion. But what’s far more likely is White declared that Jones was the top pound-for-pound fighter at some post-fight press conference, he got push-back from some reporters, and he’s just continued to dig his heels in that much deeper to prove his point because that’s what he does.

It’s obvious by now that White isn’t going to change his mind no matter how much we argue with him. You can point out that Jones isn’t as active. You can say that he doesn’t have the same level of wins over he past few years as a fighter like Islam Makhachev. You can question the logic about Jones’ dominance versus fighters like Alex Pereira. You can even joke that maybe Jones has some incriminating evidence he’s using to make White turn into his biggest backer.

Whatever the case, White isn’t suddenly going to reverse course, so why bother to keep asking? This isn’t a subject that requires closure. There’s plenty more to talk about when it comes to what’s happening in the UFC than whether or not Jones is the pound-for-pound best fighter in the sport. And it seems rather clear that the more you push White on this subject, the harder he’s going to fire back that Jones is the best and we’re all crazy.

What’s actually insane is that we’re still having this discussion at all, because truthfully, it doesn’t matter. But inevitably, we’ll just keep throwing forks while everybody else at the table just wants to eat already.

Lee: Like my colleagues, I’ve been wracking my brain trying to get into Dana White’s head and it’s possible that I’ve gone too far because I started to think... maybe he’s right about all this?

Let’s be clear here: I’m as annoyed as anyone that we’re not getting Jones vs. Aspinall anytime soon, if ever, and Jones’ rationalizing of the situation has been abominable. I’m also not entirely sure why White has been banging the “Jones is No. 1” drum so incessantly unless it’s some kind of bizarre bit of performance art, which, if so, respect.

But my best guess is that White truly believes what he’s saying and—based on his criteria at least—he has the facts to back it up.

It’s true that Jones has never lost. It’s true that he ran through the No. 1-ranked heavyweight on the UFC roster at the time when he demolished Ciryl Gane (“on the UFC roster” doing some heavy lifting in this sentence). It’s true that winning titles in two divisions should earn you serious pound-for-pound cred. And yes, it’s probably true that if you place Jones and any other professional fighter in the world in a locked room with only one way out that he’s the guy who probably walks out of that absurdly specific scenario with his head held high.

For years, Jones was the de facto answer when discussing pound-for-pound greatness, and if we’re being generous with interpreting White’s fervor it’s simply that he’s seen no good reason to bump him from the top of the ladder. Islam Makhachev? Hey, two of your title defenses are against a 145er. Alex Pereira? Didn’t you get KTFO last year? Alexandre Pantoja? Ilia Topuria? Belal Muhammad? Dricus du Plessis? Do more. You’re not on Jones’ level.

Again, I’m playing Dana’s advocate here, and other than dinging Jones for inactivity, it’s actually an easy job. Why should White earnestly engage in this particular conversation when he has a fight to promote and an all-time great that he can still push as the most dominant force in combat sports? We can argue until our faces are blue that Jones doesn’t deserve to be considered No. 1 pound-for-pound anymore. But one thing we can’t do is objectively prove it.

So there you have it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to hit the craps table with the Nelk Boys.