Dana White once tried to buy Jon Jones’ cooperation with a Bentley. It half-worked.
With their relationship having thawed after a rocky stretch, Jones reflected on a memorable perk from earlier in his UFC run during an interview with ALF Global. Back when he was 25, the boss handed him the keys to a luxury sports car.
A Bentley, Dana White gave me a Bentley when I was only 25 years old, and I crashed it, I was way too young to have that car. A Bentley GT Coupe, it was absolutely beautiful.
The gift wasn’t out of pure generosity. Jones said White wanted him to accept a short-notice title defense against Lyoto Machida on roughly four or five weeks’ rest, not long after he’d choked out Rampage Jackson at UFC 135 in September 2011.
He gave it to me because he wanted me to sign up to fight Lyoto Machida, but I had just fought, and he wanted me to fight four weeks later, or five weeks later, and I didn’t want to.
Jones ultimately took the fight, submitting Machida with a standing guillotine at UFC 140 in December 2011 to retain his light heavyweight title.
The anecdote arrives with the two men in a good place again. After recent friction over Jones being left off the UFC White House card, “Bones” squashed the beef by posting a selfie with White and calling him a “homie.” Jones hasn’t fought since beating Ciryl Gane in March 2023 but remains in the UFC’s testing pool, keeping the door cracked on a comeback.
