By Carlos Toro
It’s no surprise that UFC President Dana White isn't happy about Jon Jones possibly failing a doping test from USADA. He hammered home this point over the weekend after being forced to remove Jones from UFC 200 main event against Daniel Cormier.
White went on Colin Cowherd’s Fox Sports Radio show “The Herd,” and Cowherd noted on how “authentically bummed” White was. The UFC president that he
“You know, you got to bounce back,” White said over the phone. “We have a great card this weekend. I was definitely bummed out. I was blown away in disbelief. I obviously felt really, really bad for Daniel Cormier.”
When asked if White was angry at Jon Jones, White said that this is not the first time this has happened, and was used to hearing this kind of news.
“You get to the point where you become numb to some of this stuff, you know?” White said. “I was like ‘Wow. This is too good to be true.’ Everything was going so well. Everything was going so smooth. We’re putting up three fights in three nights. We have the fan expo. We’re flying in fighters from all over the world to be here for the autograph sessions. Everything was going so smooth and perfect.”
See Also: Nothing Was The Same: The Mad Gauntlet That Led To Anderson Silva
White eventually found a replacement in the form of Anderson Silva to face Cormier. White also mentioned that Cormier would be getting the same amount of money as if he would have earned by fighting Jones.
Cowherd noted that superstars like Jon Jones get big egos. Cowherd drew parallels to the NBA’s Dwayne Wade leaving the Miami Heat this past week as a means to defend White’s decision to take him out of the card.
“I absolutely agree [with Cowherd],” White said. “You’re dealing with human beings and human beings always make mistakes. You’ll have some people that are perfect and never have a blip. Everything goes perfect for them. Then you have guys who don’t and Jon is one of them.”
White also said that Jones is possibly the greatest talent the sport has ever seen. He was noncommittal when asked if he would book Jones on a big fight card, but said the UFC 200 card was still worth it.
“The card is ridiculous,” White said. “When you build the biggest, baddest card ever assembled in the UFC, as bad as it sucks that Jon is off, it still is an amazing card. That’s the upside.”
Daniel Cormier would go on to defeat Anderson Silva via unanimous decision. You can see Fightful.com's full UFC 200 coverage at this link.
