Personally, I am glad that Jon Jones took a stand.
Dana White isn’t very professional in the way he treats his fighters. While he is getting rich they are taking paltry paydays for a much more dangerous sport than say boxing.
Jones is one of the few fighters, that doesn’t have to say how high when Dana White says jump. UFC fighters are independent contractors, Jones didn’t have to fight on short notice and chose not to.
The reaction from White and others has been disgusting.
Case in point.
“Jon Jones is never, ever going to live this down,” Bisping told Yahoo! Sports. “This was a massive mistake. I can’t believe this was his decision. If you have ultimate fighter on your business card, you are supposed to show up and fight. And if you are the world champion, you are supposed to have the ‘anytime, anywhere, anyhow’ attitude.
As great as Jon Jones is, and he’s a great talent who has done a lot of great things and will do a lot more great things, he’s never going to be allowed to forget this. I know myself, the fans are very passionate and have long memories. I can see it already: ‘Chicken Bones Jones! This is the UFC, not KFC!’ And the fans are right. This is a little pathetic to be blunt.
“This is one of those selfish, disgusting decisions that just doesn’t affect you,” White said. “He just affected 16 other people’s lives, families, kids going back to school. The list goes on and on, the money that was spent for these fighters to train, and everything else.
“Like I said, this isn’t a decision that is going to make Jon Jones popular with the fans, sponsors, cable distributors, television network executives or other fighters.”
Dana White is a coward to throw Jones under the bus like that. It is Dana White who canceled the card not Jon Jones. It was Dana White who could have paid those other fighters, but chose not to. It is Dana White who is running his organization like the WWE.
Jones did the right thing and you have to wonder what is the root of all this venom really coming from?
That is for you to ponder.