Dana White has once again thrown his full support behind Jon Jones, publicly reaffirming his respect for the UFC star and calling him the greatest fighter of all time.
White acknowledged that his relationship with Jones has had challenges, but emphasized that his admiration has never wavered. “Me and Jon have our, you know, there's the business side and then there's the personal side, but even on the business side, I always respect Jon Jones.”
White pointed to Jones’ mindset and what he’s accomplished in the cage. “Jon Jones knows who he is, and Jon Jones knows what he does and there's no delusion there,” he said, later adding, “I say, and I'll say again: He's the greatest of all time. A lot of these fights that he went out and won, he wasn't being very good to himself leading up to those fights.”
Jones has described White as a lifelong friend and credited him with changing his life by opening the doors for his fighting career. White agreed with that “homie for life,” sentiment and has also said Jones brought a lot of attention to the UFC.
White suggested that many of the stories about Jones’ behavior before fights, including around his light heavyweight title run and his fight with Daniel Cormier at UFC 182, are still unknown to the public. “When the Jon Jones stories start to come out after he retires and he's gone and like whatever – I mean, the stuff that this guy was doing, and then coming out and beating the sh*t out of world-class guys who trained hard to try to beat him.”
