LAS VEGAS — The fallout from UFC 151’s cancellation isn’t going away anytime soon as UFC president Dana White talked again on Thursday about his displeasure for comments made by light heavyweight champ Jon Jones and his camp.
“The Jon Jones piece of meat (expletive) thing. When I see him in (expletive) Toronto, that’s the first (expletive) thing we’re going to talk about. Piece of meat? Give me a (expletive) break,” White told a small group of reporters gathered at the UFC headquarters, about an upcoming conversation he would have with Jones before his UFC 152 fight next weekend against Vitor Belfort in Canada.
“That sounds like something a male supermodel would say: I feel like a piece of meat out here (White said in a mocking voice).
“That pisses me off worse than (expletive) canceling the event. I just heard that one today, Jim Rome told me that.”
(Editor’s note: The “piece of meat” remark from Jon Jones comes at the 16:23 point in our video below.)
Closure for UFC’s boss doesn’t seem any closer after UFC 151 went up in flames last month when Dan Henderson was forced to pull out because of a knee injury and Jones refused a bout against substitute opponent Chael Sonnen.
“Every time somebody asks me if I take responsibility for canceling UFC 151 on (expletive) Twitter, it’s like ‘ Yeah, how’s it my fault?'” White said of the UFC’s first canceled event in 11 years. “If somebody can even try to give me an idea of how that’s my fault that 151 got canceled, I would love to hear it.
“Dan Henderson should have told me three weeks before that his (expletive) knee was hurt, and maybe I could have saved it. And Jon Jones should have fought (expletive) Chael Sonnen. And his (expletive) goofy trainer should have kept his face shut.”
White — who unleashed on Jones’ trainer, Greg Jackson, on a media call immediately after the event’s cancellation — certainly didn’t hold back any verbal barbs when talking about the New Mexico-based trainer again on Thursday.
“The thing that drives me crazy about Greg Jackson is Greg Jackson has this whole little thing where he’s the nicest guy in the world, the nicest guy you’ve ever met. Real quiet and humble. He’s a (expletive) hardcore businessman,” White said. “That’s what that guy is. He plays the whole thing with Jon and Rashad (Evans) and (expletive) Jardine and all these guys ‘We’re all family, we’re all brothers. We’re a big family here and that’s what we are. We won’t fight each other because we’re family.’
“(Expletive) You’re not family. You train together. Yes they like each other. There’s a lot of nice guys in MMA. Keith Jardine is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. Rashad is cool too. This sport is full of nice guys. (But Greg) plays this card with these guys…”
Before White could catch his breath, his rant on Jackson continued.
“The only reason we even know who Greg Jackson is cause of (expletive) Diego Sanchez,” White said. “Diego Sanchez came out of his camp because of GSP. GSP wanted to come train at Jackson’s camp and Diego was like (expletive) that (expletive). ‘This is my house, man. I’m going to have to fight this guy one day.’ What did Greg Jackson do? (Expletive) GSP down there isn’t he. You know why because he believed GSP would (expletive) beat Diego Sanchez. He made a business decision. I will take him over him. What happened to (expletive) family?
“Who could be more family to you than (expletive) Diego Sanchez, the kid’s been with you since he was (expletive) 14 years old. What happened to family, Greg, you (expletive) family-guy you.”
“Then you got Rashad Evans, Rashad Evans was with him the second-longest other than Diego Sanchez. ‘That’s his brother, we’re brothers. He’s my family. He’s this, that and everything else.’ Jon Jones wanted to come train there and comes in and everything is cool. Who the (expletive) did Greg Jackson pick? He picked the guy who he thought would beat Rashad Evans, no matter how (expletive) long Rashad Evans had been with him. He made a (expletive) business decision. He’s a businessman, he’s a (expletive), he’s a (expletive) con artist.”
At this point in his vitriolic speech, White tries to backup a tiny bit before closing his argument with one final blast against Jackson.
“Let me be fair. It’s good to have a trainer whom you respect. To keep you in (expletive) line, that you don’t run the (expletive) show,” White continued. “To keep you in order, and you respect him enough to run a camp. And have his (expletive) together to keep your life organized and focused and ready for a (expletive) fight and can breakdown (the fight) and do all this other stuff.
“But Greg Jackson is a (expletive) businessman who cons all these guys into this family (expletive). Because it would be the perfect (expletive) world if I can have Diego, GSP, Rashad, Jon Jones and a list of other (expletive) characters who don’t have to fight each other because they’re all the best in the world. And if they don’t ever have to (expletive) fight each other, he makes money from all of these guys. Big money, because these are all big-money fighters. He’s full of (expletive) is what he is.”
After he cooled down momentarily, White was asked how he thought the crowd would respond to Jones.
“I don’t think it will be that much different. It’s not like he was getting Wanderlei Silva-type receptions anyway,” White said. “It will be interesting to see if fans boo him more than before, or they will cheer for him.
“But you can’t deny no matter what they do, people are interested in Jon Jones.”
White relayed the story of how he called Jones immediately after learning of Henderson’s injury and seemed to have a fight against Sonnen all set.
“I was driving off the freeway, I had just landed and called him and told him what Sonnen said and he (expletive) laughed,” White said of Jones’ initial reaction. “It wasn’t like: Whoa (expletive) this might be the biggest mistake of my (expletive) career.
“I thought we had a (expletive) fight. He was laughing and was like ‘Alright I’m going to call my team and call you back in a little while.’ And then they call back and it was a completely different (expletive) story. It was the genius Greg Jackson that talked him out of the fight. Talked him out of fighting Chael Sonnen on eight days (expletive) notice, yet fighting Vitor Belfort off a full (expletive) camp.
“Ok, we were gonna fight Dan Henderson, guy’s got (expletive) knockout power, great wrestling, a good chin, tough (expletive) guy. Now here’s Chael Sonnen on eight days notice and he’s a (expletive) 185 pounder, coming in with no camp whatsoever. And you heard what they said: he’s a southpaw. Vitor Belfort’s a (expletive) southpaw. And hits (expletive) harder, and is faster and more explosive. So you’re gonna (expletive) say no to him on eight days notice but fight (Vitor). It’s so stupid that it gets me angry.”
But White, who’s no stranger to having famous confrontations with fighters in the past, says him and Jones don’t have to be best friends to do business.
“I don’t know, we’ll see how our talk goes. We’ve proven you don’t have to best friends to work here,” White said. “But it’s not a good idea to have a horrible relationship with us either. I get mad all the time and (expletive) happens, but the voice of reason in the next office over here (UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta). If you can get along with him than I’m cool with that. We run a business.
“Lorenzo was really pissed. Like I said pissing me off is one thing, I’m always pissed off. But he’s never pissed off. You start getting to the point where you’re pissing him off, then …”