Jon Jones, Dana White and Ciryl Gane at UFC 285
Dana White sides with Jon Jones in ongoing verbal feud with Tyson Fury
UFC president Dana White supports Jon Jones in his spat with Tyson Fury, despite the fact that the two men have had disagreements in the past.
Recently, the two biggest names in combat sports got into a heated online debate with each other. The fight started when comedian and UFC commentator Joe Rogan predicted Jones would win a street battle against boxing champion Tyson Fury.
White has weighed in on the controversy now that a few days have passed. White said in an interview with Bro Bible:
“Jon Jones is the baddest dude on the planet. There’s no debate, there’s no denying it. Yeah, there’s no debate. I don’t care what anybody says or how they try to spin it. A lot of this stuff is clickbait. You know how I am: If Tyson Fury really wants to fight Jon Jones in the UFC, I will make it happen. Here’s my thing: Right now, Tyson, if you’re serious, let me know.”
White added:
“Tyson can talk, Jon Jones can talk, I can talk, we can all talk. Let’s do it. If Tyson is serious, and he wants to do it, listen, I got Floyd Mayweather to fight (Conor McGregor), and we paid Floyd. We got Floyd the number he wanted. If Tyson Fury is serious, and he wants to fight Jon Jones in the UFC, let’s start talking.”
UFC president Dana White has explained his thought process behind Paulo Costa and Sean Strickland’s next fights. Across the last few months, Paulo Costa and Sean Strickland haven’t been afraid to go back and forth with one another on social media. Both are considered to be big personalities, especially within the context of the middleweight division.
In the eyes of many, it would’ve made sense for them to compete against one another at some point this year. Instead, though, Dana White has opted to go in a different direction. Sean Strickland is set to face Abus Magomedov in a Fight Night main event at the start of July. Then, later in the month, Paulo Costa will collide with Ikram Aliskerov at UFC 291. When asked about these match-ups against unproven new faces in the division, Dana White had the following to say.
“Costa hasn’t fought in a long time, Strickland’s been fighting a lot,” White said. “We like to bring guys in and see where they’re at. The dude that Paulo Costa is fighting is tough as nails, you don’t know how good some guys are until you get them in there against the Top 15. When we’re in the matchmaking room, we think some guys are ready for that step, and some guys we don’t know…we challenge people. No. 8 doesn’t always fight No. 6 or No. 5, it’s just not the way it works.”
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