UFC president Dana White has never been short on words when it comes to MMA coach Greg Jackson. However, during the post-fight media scrum after the UFC on Fuel 5 event last Saturday, White said he made a deal with Jackson fighter Jon Jones to stop talking about his trainer.
The deal between White and Jones came in the aftermath of Jones’ decision not to face Chael Sonnen as a late replacement for Dan Henderson at UFC 151 back in September. That decision led to the cancellation of the first UFC event in the promotion’s history, and White laid the blame squarely on Jackson.
Calling Jackson a “f****** sport killer” for his decision to advise Jones not to take the fight, White said last month the trainer was a “weirdo” who should never be interviewed “except from a psychiatrist”.
Such attacks caused a rift between the UFC and its light heavyweight champion Jones, who himself said he felt like “a piece of meat” by the way the promotion treated him after UFC 151 was cancelled.
Clearly the two sides have had a lot of patching up to do, and in a meeting following Jones’ successful title defence at UFC 152 against Vitor Belfort (during which fight Jones severely injured his arm), White hinted at a secret deal between the two which includes the UFC president keeping his mouth shut when it came to Jackson.
“So when I sat down with Jon Jones and we talked I made a deal with Jon,” said White. “So I’m not going to say anything about Greg Jackson. I think you guys know my opinion and how I feel. It hasn’t changed. But I’m not going to talk about Greg Jackson.”
White said that the deal meant he would keep his mouth shut about Jackson, despite repeated conflict between the two men.
And those conflicts have a deep history.
For one, there’s nothing that annoys White more than the practice of MMA camps refusing to face their fighters against each other. That situation came to a head back in April for Jackson’s camp, when Rashad Evans stepped up to challenge his former training partner Jones for the light heavyweight title.
It was one of the bitterest feuds in UFC history and led to Evans leaving Jackson’s gym in New Mexico to set up his own camp – the Blackzilians. At the time White said Jackson is purely a “businessman” and didn’t owe his loyalty to either fighter.
“Some of these fighters, who ought to know better but don’t listen to that [expletive] and don’t take it for the crock of [expletive] that it is,” sad White in April (H/T MMA Mania)
White reiterated those sentiments on Saturday, pointing out that his conflict with Jackson is nothing personal, but purely business.
“It’s not like I dislike the guy. I don’t dislike him at all. It’s just his philosophies and his business… not his philosophies, his business conflicts with my business, that’s the big problem.”
So for now, White will stay quiet when it comes to matters of Jackson. However, he couldn’t help but get one more jab in during the scrum, when he added: “I do believe Jon Jones arm would be better right now if he didn’t listen to Greg Jackson and that’s all I’m going to say.”
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