White on Jim Rome Show, responds to Jon Jones’ piece of meat comment

UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones recently appeared on a special edition of The MMA (After) Hour in what was his first full interview since it was announced he would be fighting Vitor Belfort at UFC 152, not Dan Henderson (or Chael Sonnen) at UFC 151.

At one point Jones described his feelings around the 151 cancellation. “I felt like a piece of meat,” said Jones.

Now UFC President Dana White responds, on the Jim Rome show.

Jim Rome: “Jon Jones said he felt like he was treated like a piece of meat by the UFC.”

Dana White: “I wonder how the piece of meat was feeling when we bought him the Bentley.”

Later White unfavorably compared Jones to Stephan Bonnar and Chael Sonnen.

Dana White: “Silva called to say ‘Hey Boss, I’ll fight at 205 and save the show in Las Vegas on 8 days notice’ but it was a few hours too late. So when this happened, I called him up and he stepped up and said ‘Absolutely, I’ll fight. I only have 3 weeks to make 185 and can’t do that right now. But I will fight at 205. And I thought, how can I find someone at 205 willing to fight him when we couldn’t find at 205 willing to fight Jon Jones on a month’s notice.

“Then I get a call from Stephan Bonnar and he is pumped. He says that Silva is the perfect style for him and he wants this fight more than anything. Does this fight make sense? Of course it doesn’t. But the bottom line is that Anderson and Bonnar stepped up.

“The biggest shocker about Jon Bones Jones not fighting is that he was coming off of a long camp and ready to fight Dan Henderson. He was ready to go for a fight and Chael, who hadn’t been training and was smaller, was willing to fly to Vegas that night to face him.”