5 Infamous clashes between Dana White and UFC fighters

Dana White compares Jon Jones to Tito Ortiz

The fact that White compared Jones to Ortiz publicly is enough to showcase the severity of the situation. In Aug. 2021, Jones was set to face Dan Henderson for the UFC lightweight championship but the challenger ruptured his MCL and had to pull out a week before the fight.

As usual, so the show goes on, the UFC searched for opponents and the undefeated, undisputed Chael Sonnen stepped in to take the offer. At this point, Sonnen was coming off a loss against Anderson Silva at UFC 148 and to be fair, was one of the least threatening fights for a dominant champ like Jones.

Jones and his coach Greg Jackson decided that the fight was too big of a risk for them which tons of fans as well as White didn't believe at all. While Jones had been training for a natural light heavyweight with explosive KO power in Henderson, Sonnen was a natural middleweight coming off a loss and he wasn't even training before the fight.

Jones not accepting to fight Sonnen led to a rare occurrence when White had to cancel UFC 151 altogether and he was naturally frustrated with how things turned out to be. In a media call, he admitted that this was one of his lowest points as the president of the UFC and blamed Jones for it. He also called coach Jackson a sport-killer.

"I mean Tito's been the most difficult guy in the history of the company since I've been here and Tito Ortiz didn't not take fights. This is one of those, you know, selfish, disgusting decisions that doesn't just affect you and you just affected, you know sixteen other people's lives, families. Again, like I said, I don't think this is a decision that's going to make Jon Jones popular with the fans, sponsors, cable distributors, television network executives, or other fighters."

There was a lot on White's mind as he blamed Jones for ruining the paycheck of undercard fighters while also praising Sonnen heavily. He went on to say that he respects and likes fighters who capitalize on any opportunity to get in the Octagon and they are the ones who've built the company.

Of course, this was just the beginning of a roller coaster career that Jones would have throughout the years and after almost a decade, the duo has obviously made up and White now gives Jones all the appreciation for being one of the most dominant and popular fighters ever.