Dana White, as everyone knows, wants everyone to know that Jon Jones is the #1 ranked pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC (at least for him if not in the official rankings). White even placed Jones in his UFC Mount Rushmore and fans will recall how he labeled Jones as the greatest fighter of all time ahead of Mike Tyson. But according to White, his putting Jones on such a high pedestal isn’t just his opinion, it is plain hard facts.

Even though the heavyweight champ has been remarkably inactive, and arguably not fought the quality of opponents some of the other fighters have, the UFC CEO feels that ‘Bones’ deserves to be at the top nonetheless.

Many, of course, feel that since Jones is close to retiring and his upcoming slated UFC 309 clash against Stipe Miocic may be his last appearance in the octagon, this is just White talking up the champ to build hype for that card. So egregious has White been in his defense of Jones that he is being accused of ‘glazing’ the superstar.

But Dana White, in an interview with ‘Grind City Media’ on YouTube on September 8, has yet again dismissed these accusations and claimed that Jones’ upcoming fight has nothing to do with his seemingly unending praise for ‘Bones.’ Not to mention the UFC CEO, as usual, hit out at the people who disagree with him on the subject of Jones’s ranking.

“It’s [calling Jon Jones #1 pound-for-pound fighter is] not important. Jon Jones could say I’m never going to fight again or it could be after his next fight, these are all facts. I mean I even laid them out in a commercial for all the stupid people that can’t wrap their head around it, you know. I was on a podcast this morning and I was talking about this,” White said.

Talking about facts, Jon Jones holds an impressive 21-1 record in the UFC, with five of those wins coming via KO/TKO. Apart from this, Jones is a two-time undisputed UFC light heavyweight champion and his win over Shogun Rua at UFC 128 made him the youngest UFC champion ever, aged 23 years and 8 months. His list of accomplishments doesn’t end here.

‘Bones’ has 16 title fights to his name, and holds the record for the most title fight wins in UFC history with 15. He won the Fighter of the Year prize in 2011. His 20 wins as a light heavyweight fighter are the most in the division’s history. Away from the numbers, his fierce long striking game and strong wrestling base make him one of the greats to ever step foot in the octagon.

Of course, the most important reason White thinks Jones is the best fighter in the UFC is because of his undefeated status and the body of work he has behind him. Many would even have agreed with White if he had said that Jones was the GOAT since there is a very strong case to be made for that.

Dana White wasn’t done yet taking shots at those claiming to be “experts” in combat sports. “But the beautiful thing about this sport is everybody thinks they’re an expert in MMA or in Combat Sports period… But the only experts in this sport are in that building right across the street [points to UFC HQ],” White asserted.

The UFC’s head honcho putting Jones on a pedestal is nothing new. Ahead of UFC 306 in Las Vegas, White was asked to name his MMA Mount Rushmore. He said, “You got to go with Jon Jones. You’d have to go with Ronda Rousey. Women would not be fighting in the UFC if it wasn’t for her. You would have to put [Georges St-Pierre] in there and absolutely, positively Conor McGregor. He elevated and changed the game globally.” In June 2020, White had different names for his Mount Rushmore pick, naming Amanda Nunes, Royce Gracie, and Chuck Liddell along with Jones.

Last year, in an interview with Piers Morgan, White put Jones above Mike Tyson. Morgan asked White who would he name if he had to pick one person to fight for his life. White answered, “I mean Jon Jones who’s in the UFC still has never been beat. This guy has beat everybody and when you talk about real fighting, you know when you talk about who the baddest man on the planet is, the real definition of what that means, you throw two guys in a room and who comes out? And it is hard to say that Jon Jones is not that guy right now.”

When Morgan mentioned he would take Mike Tyson as his pick, White countered and said, “Tyson doesn’t know the ground game. Tyson can’t grapple. Nobody loves Mike Tyson more than I do, believe me, but when you talk about putting two guys in a room who comes out, Jon Jones has the tools to beat everybody.”

More recently, White didn’t agree with Jones’ ranking at third when it comes to pound-for-pound ratings. Speaking after the press conference of his Contender Series, he yet again praised Jones. “He moved up and he fought Ciryl Gane and destroyed him in a weight class above him, who was the No.1 guy in the world – in the UFC. Then, we book another fight. He’s training for the fight, blows his shoulder out – which means he’s still active – gets surgery, recovering and is scheduled to fight in November. He is an active fighter.”

But the fact that the UFC CEO doesn’t even want to entertain that anyone else could be the P4P king is what upsets many. However, no one can say that the Power Slap founder is wrong, simply because of the inherent nature of these rankings.

What do the P4P rankings even mean?

Weight classes exist for a reason in combat sports. Size, of course, is one of the biggest advantages one could have in a fight, and is the reason why almost every fighter cuts as much weight as they can to try and compete in weight classes lower than their natural weight.

The pound-for-pound rankings are, in fact, a guess on which fighter would be where if everyone in the fighter was of the same size. More a determination of skills and intangibles, the rankings include every fighter in the promotion. But since there is no actual way to to determine their veracity (with a fight or two as in divisional rankings, for example), it makes it almost entirely arbitrary.

But how are the P4P rankings calculated? A jury of media members cast individual votes that are then aggregated. Like the divisional rankings, recent performance, quality of opponent, and level of activity are used as yardsticks for the P4P rankings. And it is precisely the arbitrary nature of the P4P list that Dana White could insist that Jones should be the P4P king.

Even the people whose job it is to decide who is ranked where, strongly disagree with the UFC boss. What are your thoughts on Dana White’s take on Jon Jones ‘glazing’?