The saga of Jon Jones and the White House sure seems to say something about how UFC operates now
Just so were all clear on why Jon Jones does not appear on the current lineup for the UFCs big event at the White House this summer (calling it UFC Freedom 250 still sounds like a brand of motor oil), lets recap the claims made by both sides in the last couple days. According to UFC CEO Dana White, Jones fighting on the White House card was never gonna happen, ever. In fact, White said, there was no way in hell Jon Jones was going to be booked for the White House card. He claims he said as much to Jones lawyer in a text message sent before Jones came out and publicly said he was in negotiations with the UFC for a fight at the event. Jones, however, said he was in real negotiations with the UFC regarding at a fight at the White House, but the two sides couldnt agree on money. I even came down from my original number, and what was I offered in return? I was lowballed, Jones wrote on social media Monday. But White also said he never denied that the UFC was negotiating with Jones for the fight: I never said there were no negotiations. I never said that. Were [UFC matchmakers] talking to Jon Jones? They talked to everybody. Everybody was talked to. Not one word of what I said was untrue about the whole Jon Jones thing. And how many times have I sat up here and said hes not fighting at the White House? White also suggested that Jones couldnt fight at this event even if the UFC wanted him to. Have you guys not all seen the video of the dude with the Meta glasses on when [Jones] didnt know he was being filmed, telling him that his hips are f****** shot and he needs a hip replacement? Did you not see the videos of him running in the flag football game? What did I say that wasnt true? Its all true. Jones, responding to this armchair assessment of his hip condition, said hed received stem cell treatments for his hip and was prepared to begin his training camp this week. Hearing White suggest that he might be incapable of fighting anywhere at this stage led Jones to go one step further: If the UFC truly feels like Im done, then I respectfully ask to be released from my contract today. No more spins, no more games. Thank you to the real fans who know whats up.So if Im understanding this correctly, the UFC thinks Jones cant fight anymore and wouldnt have offered him a fight at the White House under any conditions. Despite that, UFC executive did engage in negotiations with Jones for a fight at the White House. Because apparently they were either just that committed to keeping all options open or simply decided they werent already busy enough.Negotiations even got far enough for fight purse numbers to get bandied back and forth, which seems like an interesting waste of everyones time for a fight that was never, ever going to happen. And besides, the guy has a bad hip and cant even play flag football, much less fight in the UFC. Regardless, he remains (at least at the time of this writing) under contract to the UFC.There. That all makes sense, right?Its revealing that this is the conversation were having two days after the UFC announced the lineup for arguably its most anticipated event of all time. This thing is the result of months and months of build-up. President Trump said it would include six or seven title fights. TKO executives said it would cost $60 million to produce. White has been on every podcast youve never heard of talking up this event for nearly a year now. But here we are after the big reveal, and most of the talk is about the fighter whos not a part of it and was never going to be?That says something about the generally underwhelmed reaction to the lineup, but it also says something about how the UFC operates now.Several different fighters who actually are on the card described somewhat last-minute negotiations to finalize their bouts. (Even interim lightweight champ Justin Gaethje, whos one-half of the main event, said he was told last Thursday that he definitely wouldnt be on the card, only to then be told on Saturday the day the lineup was announced that he would be.) To hear Jones tell it, his negotiations with the UFC were still ongoing in the days leading up to the announcement.Its as if the whole thing was some group assignment the UFC put off until the last minute and then had to rush to finish using whatever materials were already available.If this were any other fight card, you might just chalk it up to the fickle nature of the fight business. Even this lineup that was announced on Saturday is subject to change, and itd be at least a little surprising if we make it to June 14 without some subtractions and/or additions.But this thing has been circled and highlighted and underlined on the UFC calendar for months. Its the event no one could shut up about. So many people offered their services that it became legitimately newsworthy whenever a UFC fighter said he didnt want to fight on the card. Still it ends up feeling like a mishmash of backup plans and budget-friendly options.Im sure well get over it by the time fight night rolls around. We are still three months away, after all, which is another reason why the last-minute rush to book this thing feels a little surprising. But just remember, every good fisherman already knows: Its usually not a great sign when the most interesting story you have to tell is about the one that got away.
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