UFC President Dana White & Jon Jones, Bury the Hatchet Post UFC 152

STUDIO MMA, LOS ANGELES – On August 23 just days away from UFC 151: Jones vs Henderson, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) cancels a live event for the first time in company history. Dan Henderson pulls out from the fight due to a knee injury, and Jon Jones refuses to fight the late replacement Chael Sonnen. Since then UFC’s President, Dana White has publicly blamed Jones and his camp for the cancellation of the event and animosity towards each other started to build over the weeks until they sat down at UFC 152 and talked over the situation face-to-face.

Dana White didn’t reveal exactly what they talked about but he said the following at UFC 152 Post Fight Press Conference:

”Jon’s made some mistakes, he’s going to be around for a long time. He’s not going anywhere unless he does it to himself. I think as Jon continues to win more fights, continues to feel more comfortable with that belt and in his skin right now — with who he he really is — I think he’ll be better all around — publicly, his image, fighting. There are times when he just doesn’t feel comfortable with who he is, which is kind of weird. He’s a great fighter and he really is a good guy. We had a great talk yesterday. I’m not going to talk about anything we talked about yesterday. We both kind of shook hands as men and made a couple of agreements together that I will keep. Hopefully, he’ll keep his and we’ll have a great relationship.”

Jon Jones, who said during the fight week that he was not informed that UFC 151 would get canceled without his participation and felt that Dana White was unfair by blaming solely a fighter for cancellation of a event said the following things post UFC 152:

”I think me an Dana are forever going to be a lot closer. We really got to talk to each other on a level of just two grown men, not a boss and an athlete. It was more about two adults, talking like adults. I got to express to him how I felt about what he said, he got to put me in his shoes and put me where he was at as the president of an organization. He really explained to me about the loss that he suffered. Neither one of us was necessarily apologetic about anything. We just came to a great understanding. He understands now who I am as a person and as an athlete and I understand who he is as the CEO of this company. I think we left with a mutual respect for one another and we’ll have a much stronger relationship in the future.”