Dana White on Jon Jones retirement: “The fight was done, why he’s retired, I don’t know”

Dana White talks about Jon Jones retiring from mixed martial arts, and what happens moving forward with Tom Aspinall.

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you mentioned Azabaijan last night there’s a bit of news that came out from that postfight press conference john Jones has officially retired tom Aspenol is the champion this has been a long story it seems to have a lot of back and forth can you tell us the timeline of John accepted the fight went to Thailand came back didn’t want the fight what happened yeah I wouldn’t say that uh Thail Thailand was the end of it you know we were talking about it before that but yeah the fight was done we had the fight done uh a long time ago so why he uh he decided not to fight you guys will have to ask him that is it accurate there’s a lot of reports about figures he was offered is it fair to say he was offered a lot of money to take this fight yeah um listen he was offered what he deserves uh for that fight um yeah i’ll just come out and ask you do you think he’s ducking Tom Aspenol no jon Jones I said it a million times I’ll say it again he’s never ducked anybody other than that one goofy time with the Chel Sunonnen thing he’s never never ducked anybody and uh you know I I I think the reality is whatever changed his mind with this fight I don’t know you’d have to ask him that but you know he’s 38 years old and I don’t know do you think if he was someone like Alex Pereira he would fight them and it’s maybe Tom that he specifically like doesn’t fancy the matchup doesn’t fancy the age difference i don’t know i don’t know the answer to these questions only he does um you know we had the fight done uh listen our job is to make the biggest fights we can make and the fights that the fans want to see and uh that’s what we try to do but the minute somebody starts talking about retirement you know my philosophy on that you should do it did you know about the stuff that came out of Albuquerque last night i I I saw it today when I saw it today I said “Ah everybody’s going to think this is why he retired.” Maybe maybe that is why he retired who the hell knows man but uh yeah I I don’t know these are all questions you got to ask him we had the fight done i you know you saw me talking about it very confidently that this fight was going to happen and then uh he changed his mind two more quick ones for me so for Tom Aspen Knight he’s the heavyweight champion of the world does that defense he did against Curtis Blades count to his official defenses because then he would only have two more to equal Stipe or does he have to start fresh now you guys are throwing [ __ ] at me that I haven’t even thought about i I have no idea but uh yeah I don’t know yeah it seems like the most obvious choice would be Sirill Garn for Tom but is there a chance here maybe that like to start the new without Jon Jones era we should maybe do a big super fight and maybe you could convince Alex Pereira to move up and do an Aspen fight something like that or what are you thinking about the Tom fight well once I get through today uh tomorrow starts International Fight Week i’ll be back in Vegas tonight and uh Tom will be there all next week so we’ll sit down with him see what he’s thinking what he wants to do he literally he’s been great through this whole thing and literally said “I’ll fight whoever you guys tell me to fight i’m I’m ready to go.” So um looking forward to I’m looking forward to the Tom Aspenol era you said you had the date or the the fight or was agreed to did you have a date and a location for that cuz I think a lot of people assumed it would be at MSG again that it would be what at Madison Square Garden like heavyweight fight yeah yeah that’s what we were shooting for we were shooting for for uh for New York yeah so would it make sense to keep Tom on that day or are you going to try to like you’ve waited long enough let’s get you in there well yeah i I mean we got to figure out the rest of the year um Aspenol is going to land somewhere yeah and then we’re obviously here you’re wearing the shirt for Canelo Crawford what’s that uh experience been like building up to you know not just your first boxing event but arguably one of the biggest fights ever yeah I I uh today’s going to be my first real day in it uh all the other stuff has been production and um you know we got to come up with a graphics package and you know start literally from scratch and and build this thing so this is what we do and uh yeah I’m looking forward to it and then last year around this time we kept asking about the sphere and all the graphics and that now it’s a stadium so like obvious we’ve heard you over the years like you don’t like stadiums stadiums so how’s uh planning a stadium show been for you because I hate stadiums so bad for fights we have to figure out how to make it the best possible live experience that we can and uh that is really our main focus for this thing uh the fight is what it is it you know uh nothing we can do about that but we got to make the in-house live experience as good as possible that’s what we’re focused on and then obviously it’s going to be on Netflix how’s it been dealing with those people very good actually we we uh had a call with them last week and they were sort of walking us through uh everything that they do as far as marketing and and everything that leads up to a big event for them they are they are very good at what they do so I’m I’m looking forward to it are you saying that breadcrumbs to a possible Netflix deal for your broadcast are they going to be involved in that who knows i mean we’ll see how that whole thing plays out but uh no that that this isn’t writing on the wall or anything we’re we’re in talks with everybody appreciate you i think the partnership this is I mean going back to old interviews this is stuff you’ve talked about for decades making this a worldwide sport but it just seems such a far-fetched goal 20 years ago 25 years ago i mean this is another big step for you guys yeah you’re talking about going into uh Yeah yeah it’s has it always been your goal aua I mean I I didn’t even know what the hell that place was till uh we started talking about going there you know what I mean um and then we went there have you guys been to Aua Baan let me tell you I’m I’m not even ask anybody that went to this event it is one of the most incredible places yeah it’s beautiful the food’s incredible the people are really nice and uh unbelievable infrastructure from you know when you go to a destination city the malls and the restaurants and all those things uh Azubai and Baku was was all of that michael Bisby is talking about taking his wife there for vacation when he gets home um what was the turning point though it just seems such a far-fetched goal to go global from where you guys were 20 years ago was there a turning point uh no i mean once I we started with the UK Canada you know all the all the all the usual suspects and then it just started to grow from there and I I would say one one of the big you know when we did the deal with Abu Dhabi obviously massive i mean those guys were so far ahead of everything and and uh with Shake Taknon being such a huge jiu-jitsu fan and and everything else uh say I I’d say what what you said was the catapult everything was probably Abu Dhabi just being back home that ever obviously you carry Boston everywhere you go does that kind of give you an edge i feel like that’s uh I don’t know an edge how as far as what it’s always a chip on our shoulder I think from that area you know that well I I think more than Boston chip it was the the UFC chip you know we were like the the redheaded stepchild of sports and uh and of the fertita portfolio at the time um and I just uh I just always believed that this thing could be global and that it could be big sorry how much does your hologram cost were you really in Osbord last night like how are you moving yeah I really was uh yeah I got to I I got to get a hologram um yeah I’ve I’ve been everywhere man i the day I I I don’t have the actor account again but since Christmas I’ve been home around 34 days since Christmas this year um but it’s all good stuff we’ve been working on a lot of cool [ __ ] so uh yeah not bad amazing you mentioned the quote about doing what you love and it’s you don’t want to sleep so I appreciate that but uh speaking of an amazing uh performance last night Nazim Sadikov what do you make of the Black Wolf’s performance yeah that fight was ridiculous especially live uh with the crowd with him being from there and uh you know the 75 punch combination he got hit with in the first round and and weathered the storm and and uh that was a fun fight to see live and that was why as soon as halfway through the main event I was like I’m giving those two all the money i’m giving them all the money for the uh bonuses and uh I saw Ray Longo grinning extra wide it was welld deserved uh fight was incredible d just very quickly with with regards to the Jon Jones situation could you run us through what exactly happened so you said it was the night before last so he calls you or you called him or what what was the the situation yeah so he called us and uh and just started saying you know what I think I’m done i want to retire and uh been a great run i appreciate everything and that was it it was just he was absolutely positively sure that he wanted to uh wanted to uh retire and we said why don’t let’s why don’t you sleep on it and you know when you wake up in the morning if that’s how you still feel and cuz it’s scary i like an act of John Jones i don’t like uh John Jones too much time on his I like an act of everybody i like I like people being so active i like to turn them around as fast as we can right after you know like Hamzot fast like uh during co um yeah I like guys that fight a lot so I agree with you was the call emotional was it an emotional call was he upset was he or was it just kind of matter of fact like look here’s um yeah I think it was I think it was again you never know what Jon Jones is dealing with and then you wake up the next day and so who knows i mean I I don’t know everything that went into this decision this is something you guys are going to have to ask him if you ever see him again uh but I I I don’t know i don’t know the answers to these questions all I know is that he made it very clear that he wanted to retire and I don’t disagree with him and very quickly just there was uh there was that famous moment when uh you know you had that fight I think it was Maz Allen Diaz and Canelo was kind of sleeping on the thing you remember this thing where so I’m wondering because obviously on Saturday night you’ve got a Ilias fight and then Jake Paul is going headtohead with you I guess what are your thoughts on when on this Saturday coming up oh really i didn’t even [ __ ] know that travis who’s he fighting junior okay well what what are your thoughts on on going headtohead with uh your old pal i didn’t even know he was fighting so that’s how uh concerned I am about it uh yeah I didn’t even know huh holly Holmes in the com oh no [ __ ] who’s she fighting uh some prospect right okay jacob Cha is a proper fight though isn’t it what’s that jacob Cha is a proper fight though yeah it’s interesting yeah yeah just on the boxing thing right i knew when you were going to get into this game some of the existing promoters in boxing were probably going to get a little bit defensive about you entering boxing now Zu for boxing is a real thing a lot of people said it never would be de La Hoya is already out here saying this fight’s going to be at lunchtime and stuff like that how excited are you to go What’s at lunchtime mean he said that he said Canelo Craw is going to take place during the day so you can then do your UFC show after it [ __ ] would he know that that’s not true just curious so if you’re So So you’re saying that when we were talking about getting into it and that some people would uh whatever De La Hoy does La Hoy count i mean come on that’s what I mean like you’re going to go up against these old guys you’ve had rivals with forever does part of you excited to put them out of business almost or there’s any rival de La Hoy is just a douchebag a big difference between that and and rivalry um you know I really like Eddie Hearn um I like Frank Warren and a lot of the other guys that that that are in here um that are in the sport and and I think that they’re going to continue to do what they do and we’ll do what we do and I don’t I don’t think there’s any rivalry cuz some of these guys I I have uh I have good relationships with um you know and then there’s the [ __ ] lunatics like De La Hoya and Aram and guys like that but yeah I I why Z going to do what I always do going to do what we do we’re going to move forward and you know um we pretty much do everything that we say we’re going to do we get it done and um I’m not looking at anybody as a as a rival or we’re going to we’re going to take this guy out or or or any of that i I you know people don’t work too well in the boxing business but uh I think those guys are going to continue to run their businesses and do what they do and then we’ll do what we do i I know you had a question boxing why the name of we sat around for freaking two months trying to come up with a name for this thing and it was driving me crazy and Zufa Boxing was already there it was it was just the easiest you had the t-shirts made already exactly we got we got rings and the and and the PI yeah you manifested zufa boxing it is can I come on um EA Sports UFC 5 great game uh if we could download one downloadable character uh is goes by the L Predator i will not mention his name but if we did the Predator versus Aspenol in your mind’s dream matchup how would that go the Predator in huh who would Ingu or Aspenol ah okay not his name is the Predator not spoken uh Francis and Gu I’m not a fan uh I I don’t I don’t uh dream if it like how would you see You’ll have to play that one out in your head uh cuz I don’t see that happening um yeah appreciate you yeah cheers all right boys thank you