Dana White is so used to Jon Jones’s outside-the-cage troubles that his reaction to the latest scandal involving the light heavyweight champion is tantamount to a yawn. Jones was recently charged with battery resulting from an alleged incident involving a cocktail waitress in an Albuquerque gentleman’s club and, as far as Dana White is concerned, it’s business as usual: Jones takes care of business inside the cage, but outside-the-cage drama prompts him to wonder if they will ever do business together again (Transcript via MMA Junkie):
“If you look at the lifestyle he’s lived the last seven, eight years of his life, and what he comes in the octagon and does,” White said. “He just fought Thiago (Santos), who’s a (expletive) animal, and wants everything Jones has, stood in there – I don’t know if I’ve ever heard of more damage to one knee in my life. (Santos) fought and was still kicking with the leg, and Jon Jones beat him. It’s unbelievable how good Jon Jones really is. It’s the minute he steps out of the octagon, you never know what’s going to happen.
“It doesn’t faze me any more,” White told reporters during a media scrum. “Every time we do a fight with Jon, I’m wondering if it’s going to be his last…it has nothing to do with money. It’s what’s going to happen outside the octagon.
“He’s in trouble right now.”
Jon Jones begs to differ, explicitly stating in a tweet after the news of the battery charge broke that he is not in any trouble at all. The maximum penalty for battery in New Mexico is six months in prison with a fine, so whether or not Jones is actually “in trouble” or not may lie somewhere in the middle, which White believes to be the case with the accusation itself:
“There’s two sides to the story,” White said. “And the truth is somewhere in the middle, I’m sure.”
Jon Jones most recently competed against Thiago Santos at UFC 239, with Jones earning the close split-decision victory. He has stated on several occasions that he would like to return to competition in December, but also recently teased a comeback in Madison Square Garden this November. As of right now, it does not appear that the battery charge will prevent Jones from competing in either month.
What are your thoughts on Dana White’s reaction to Jon Jones’s latest scandal?
