UFC
Jon Jones opens up about UFC 151 cancellation, Dana White's comments; says he felt like a "piece of meat"
Sep 4, 2012 - 8:30:33 PM Jon Jones opens up about UFC 151 cancellation, Dana White's comments; says he felt like a "piece of meat"

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones opened up about UFC 151's cancellation this week in a sprawling, 40-minute interview with MMAFighting.com's Ariel Helwani. The 25-year-old was given the brunt of the blame for UFC 151's cancellation off the bat, in a tirade delivered by UFC President Dana White. However, Jones says that he had no idea at the time that his decision not to fight Chael Sonnen would lead to the entire event being canceled, and he was baffled by the reaction that brought about from White.

"When I was talking to Dana and Lorenzo on the phone about the whole situation, they mentioned that they had no clue what they were going to do, and I apologized a thousand times," Jones said. "I told them how much I respect them, and how much my job means to me. I said 'if you guys respect me, please understand the type of athlete I am, and that I really love coming through for you guys.' I fought four times in ten months, I did every media tour I had to do. I didn't know if I was going to win this fight because I was doing so much media for the UFC."

"I do tons of things that I don't get paid for, just to try to be a company guy. I have a lot of pride in trying to be a company guy for the UFC. But putting my livelihood on the line? You can't ask me to do that, I have way too much to lose. They should have understood that and they could have kept the card going, but instead they made the executive decision to cancel the fight and blamed it all on me."

There were a number of other factors that went into the card being canceled, though, not the least of which was a less than packed event that the UFC then didn't think they could sell on pay-per-view without Jones. Ultimately, Jones believes, it didn't come down to him at all, the decision was the UFC's and the UFC's alone.

"It's not my fault that it wasn't the best card they designed," Jones said. "The UFC prides themselves on having full cards. Stacked. Unlike boxing, where they'll have nobodies then Mayweather or Pacquiao. UFC is known from having beautiful fight cards from top to bottom. Why wasn't that the case? In my opinion I thought it was the case. My teammates were on that card. I would have never canceled a martial arts fight... I love MMA on all levels."

"So all the other fighters who are pissed at me, don't be pissed at me, I'm not the one who basically said you weren't good enough for pay-per-view. That wasn't my decision, I had to protect me, myself, and the Jon 'Bones' Jones brand. Not other fighters and not the UFC's brand."

Jones has received a lot of backlash from fellow fighters, many of them disgruntled fighters who were on the UFC 151 event and lost out on a paycheck, not to mention the airfare and other monetary losses they incurred by the late notice cancellation. While Jones feels bad for that aspect of the situation, he again reiterated that not only does he not care whether his fellow fighters like him or not, he had no power in canceling the event.

"My job is not to be popular among fighters, the fighters don't pay my paycheck, the fighters aren't buying Jon 'Bones' Jones t-shirts, [my job isn't to] take care of the fighters," Jones said. "I [couldn't] care less if any fighter in the UFC liked me or not. My job is to show up once or twice, three times a year, and go back home."

"Jon Jones is not a UFC executive. I had zero power in canceling the fight. If they're too afraid to tell Dana they're upset with them, that's on them. Blame it on me if they want; be a man and really talk to the guy who made that decision."

One of the more interesting things to come out of White's tirade is just what that means for the relationship between Jones and the UFC going forward. For Jones, he was upset by the reaction that he received from White, and felt used by the UFC in being scapegoated the way he was.

"I just really felt hurt by Dana... I do everything they ask me to do, I really do. It really hurt to be on that different spectrum, to be compared to Tito Ortiz. I don't complain about money, I don't complain about anything. I do what I'm told. I'm the Champion [who] fights way more than any Champion. You go from me and you being really close... now I'm just hated, because I did what was right for me and my future? If I would have lost the fight, I would've simply not been the Champion anymore; he wouldn't have lost sleep over that. I can't make irrational decisions to make him happy."

"I just thought I meant a lot more to him. I really did. I didn’t look at him like a boss or anything. I just looked at him like a friend, a business partner. I just thought I meant a lot to the UFC and they made me feel like a piece of meat. Like a total piece of meat. He just completely bashed me and my coach. It was just terrible, man. It was terrible. It's just good to see where I stand with him. There's no need to have any type of fake relationship in the future. I'm going to continue to do my best for the UFC, but it's definitely good to see what I really mean to him."

When all is said and done, Jones hopes people can at least understand his side of things when it comes to UFC 151, and honestly doesn't believe he deserves the scorn he's received in the last two weeks.

"At the end of the day, Dan Henderson got hurt. That's what happened," Jones said. "I was ready. Two weeks ago, everything was going perfect, my camp was going good, I was cutting weight, people were so excited to see the fight. Now, I'm the bad guy. What did I do wrong, really? I didn't get hurt, I didn't cancel the fight."

Penick's Analysis: Just off the snippet we've seen of Dana White's forthcoming interview with Helwani on UFC Tonight, he's softened his stance on Jones, but fully repairing the rift that's been developed between the two could be a really tough task. White absolutely threw Jones under the bus in reactionary fashion, mainly because of the proximity of the decision to the conference call almost two weeks ago. One of the issues at hand is Jones' contention that he didn't know the event would be canceled without him on it. It's not a decision that he should have been burdened with regardless, but the fact that he didn't know they would cancel the event if he said no to Chael Sonnen makes it even clearer that this shouldn't be placed on him alone. Yes, it played a part, and had he taken the fight the event would have gone on as planned, but there were a number of other factors in play that ultimately led to the cancellation, and the blame can't be placed at his feet only.

[Jon Jones art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]