Dana White gave his honest opinion of Jon Jones’ most recent brush with the law earlier this week.
Dana White does usually does his best to protect his assets. When fighters get in trouble, more often than not the UFC brass is there to help them. Well, that doesn’t seem to be the case with Jon Jones‘ latest issues with the law. Jones was arrested for a probation violation following a tense incident with an Albuquerque police officer where, after verbally lambasting the officer, he was issued a total of five tickets.
As a guest on TMZ Sports today (transcribed by MMA Fighting), White spoke about Jones’ previous “good guy” persona, and how he handles any interaction with the police himself:
“I don’t think Jon Jones is ever going to be the Jon Jones that people expect him to be,” White said. “Jon is gonna do Jon. I think that Jon tried so hard to play the good guy for so long, it drove him crazy. And Jon is just gonna be Jon now.”
“When I get pulled over by the police, I am the most polite human being you’ve ever met in your life,” White said. “There’s no upside to talking back to the police. It’s the dumbest thing you can ever do, especially if you’re in Jon Jones’ position.”
The UFC issued a statement earlier today stating that they were “disappointed” with Jones’ arrest, but his fight with Daniel Cormier at UFC 197 would go forward as planned assuming Jones complied with the judge’s probation conditions.
Somewhat surprisingly, White says he hasn’t spoken to Jones:
“I haven’t talked to him, honestly. He’s been a little tied up since that happened.”
Cormier/Jones 2 is scheduled to go down on April 23rd in Las Vegas.