UFC
Dana White on the Jon Jones-Daniel Cormier brawl at UFC 178 media day: "It's our bad"
Aug 17, 2014 - 5:20:59 PM Dana White on the Jon Jones-Daniel Cormier brawl at UFC 178 media day: "It's our bad"

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

"You want to know what my personal opinion is? Our bad. It's our bad. These are fighters. They are two of the baddest dudes in the world going face-to-face to stare it off, we have to make sure that doesn't happen. It shouldn't happen, and it shouldn't have happened. But it did... I don't think that that was something that was thought about. What happened was when Jones went in fast and hard, he headbutted him. Listen, you've got two of the baddest dudes in the world going face-to-face. That's why every time you do a stare-down, it's always explosive and anything can happen. Two of my favorite things in this sport, the weigh-ins and the fight. At the weigh-ins, guys have been away from their families for eight weeks or longer. They're cutting weight. The fight's the next day, they're nasty, they're mean, and they're irritable. And it's explosive and anything can happen. Then the day of the fight is the reason we all watch... Dave Sholler doesn't have a lot of experience in stare-downs, you know? And that thing got a little crazy. This is the fight business, man. This isn't ice-skating, it's the fight business, and anything can happen at any moment. No matter how educated the guys are, how great they are, everything is always explosive, man. Two of the baddest dudes get in each other's face, you've got to be ready to make sure that doesn't happen."

-During a post-UFC Fight Night 47 media scrum, UFC President Dana White gave his thoughts on the Jon Jones-Daniel Cormier brawl two weeks ago (via MMAFighting.com).

Penick's Analysis: It's an anomaly, won't be a trend. White does a good job of cutting things off before they get to that point at weigh-ins and other stare downs, and though you can't really place any blame on Sholler for what happened, he may be a bit more proactive the next time he's in that situation. I doubt we see anyone else follow suit anytime soon, just because it's not something the UFC wants to see duplicated needlessly. One time brings added hype, a pattern brings added criticism, and the UFC doesn't want to have to deal with that on a consistent basis.

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