Dana White and Jon Jones are back on the same page.
At the UFC 152 post-fight press conference, the UFC President revealed that he had met with Jones a day before the event to patch up some personal differences.
White initially was upset at Jones for refusing to step up and fight Chael Sonnen on short notice to prevent the UFC 151 pay-per-event from being cancelled back in August.
Jones, on the other hand, felt like White was out of line in putting all of the blame on him for the cancellation of an entire event. He signed a contract to face Dan Henderson, but an unforeseen injury threw a monkey wrench in the original plans.
Sonnen offered to step up as a late replacement for Henderson, but given the stark contrast in styles, Jones turned down the fight.
Over the past few weeks, White and Jones have taken shots at one another in the media. After meeting face to face to discuss their issues, the two seem to have finally squashed their beef.
“At the end of the day, has he made a few mistakes? Of course he has. He’s not a bad guy. He’s not a bad kid at all,” White said at the post-fight presser. “He and I sat down yesterday, we had a great conversation…Everything is awesome.”
Although Jones is far from being considered a fan favorite, the MMA world seems to have gained more respect for the young champ after his fourth round submission victory over Vitor Belfort at UFC 152.
After steamrolling a plethora of MMA legends, Jones was forced to deal with a little adversity in the opening moments of the first round. Belfort, a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, was able to latch on an armbar and nearly handed Jones his first legitimate loss.
Despite his arm undergoing severe hyperextension, Jones was able to weather the storm and dominate the rest of the fight.
Still, critics are latching on to the possibility that Belfort may have exposed a chink in Jones’ armor. During the press conference, White was asked if Belfort‘s performance put a dent in Jones’ otherworldly aura and proved he wasn’t unbeatable.
“There’s no doubt that this was Jones’ best performance. He looked phenomenal tonight,” White said.
White continues:
“He got injured in the first round, got that elbow popped. There were a lot of questions about Jon Jones that people kept asking over and over and over again no matter who he fought, no matter how good he fought. Could he take a punch? He got hit with some big punches tonight from a real puncher, and he took them.
He was injured. He had the heart to keep going, and he had a great fight tonight. There can be no more naysaying about Jon Jones. Listen, you love him or you hate him. If you don’t like him, whatever, if you like him, good, but you can’t deny that the kid is extremely talented and one of the best in the world…I disagree, and I think that Jon Jones did look unbeatable tonight.”
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