Dana White Addresses The Controversies Surrounding Conor McGregor And Jon Jones

Dana White has hit back at suggestions that he does not respect USADA in light of his recent comments about Conor McGregor. 

The president of the UFC was recently addressing whether or not he believed that McGregor would return to the Octagon this year.

The ‘Notorious’ had made it known that he was intending to fight once again with suggestions that Michael Chandler could be the man that gets in the cage with him.

While that may have been the case, this has been harder than first thought. McGregor had been informed on June 16th, 2023, that he had 48 hours to enrol in USADA if he wanted to fight this year at UFC 296. 

This was on the basis that McGregor had to provide two testing samples that were negative six months before the testing deadline.

White’s Comments

And given that McGregor has reportedly not done that, it suggested that the Irishman would not be fighting this year. And yet, when it came to White, he had a different take on the matter. 

There were suggestions that an exemption could be provided to McGregor in order to work his way around the rules.

This had previously happened in 2016 when Brock Lesnar had been given an exemption when he faced off against Mark Hunt. 

However, things did not go down well as Lesnar ended up failing a drug test after. As such, Lesnar’s victory was overturned to a no contest. Although that was the situation, White was still optimistic that fans could see McGregor.

“We’ll see how that plays out. They’re saying that now, but we don’t-who knows? I don’t talk about s*** until s*** happens. To sit here and think hypothetically how a million different things could happen, no idea.

“The Conor thing, who the hell knows how that’s going to play out? Who cares what USADA says, we’ll see what happens when it happens. So I don’t know,” White said 

Those comments raised a strong reaction with suggestions that McGregor was being given special privileges. McGregor has not fought since his loss to Dustin Poirier in 2021 when the star broke his leg.

A long period of rehabilitation had occurred, but as of now, McGregor does not have a fight date with Chandler. This is despite the fact that both fighters are competing on ‘TUF’ 31 as coaches against each other. 

But in order to prevent things escalating, White cleared up any misunderstandings that may have emerged.

“Listen, I’m glad you brought that up. You know, there’s a lot of business that needs to be handled before we talk about this and I was doing an interview on Friday and a bunch of f****** scumbags wrote stories that I said, ‘F*** USADA, I don’t care what USADA says.’

“It’s not even remotely close to what I said, so first of all I’d like to say, ‘F*** you’ to everybody that wrote that story, number one. And number two, there’s a lot of stuff that has to go on before he fights,” White stated 

White On Jones

Aside from McGregor, White also addressed another controversial issue. Despite recent news that Jon Jones had been confirmed to fight Stipe Miocic on November 12th, 2023, at UFC 295, the heavyweight champion was pictured drinking shots with former MMA star Jorge Masvidal. 

This would be far from the ideal preparation in getting ready for a mega heavyweight bout. 

Jon Jones and Jorge Masvidal doing a shot after the Gambred press conference pic.twitter.com/DmIbSml3rR

— MMA Mania (@mmamania) July 8, 2023

In the video above, Jones can be seen drinking at a club in Las Vegas. The last time that Jones had been spotted drinking was when the UFC champion was arrested for domestic violence.

While the charge was let go, it did not portray the fighter in a positive light. And yet, this time around, White did not appear too fazed. 

“Listen, he’s a grown man. He can do whatever the hell he wants. I always say this, more than 12 hours in Vegas is usually probably not a good idea for Jon.

“But yeah, I don’t know. Listen, Jon has done very well for himself. He’s, he’s been through a lot of sh-t. He’s made it through. I don’t know whose idea it was to keep Jon here for days.

“Hunter [Campbell], was that your idea? Well, here we are. I’ll plead the fifth on that, sir,” White

White’s ultimate focus will be to put on the biggest fights available in the UFC. And if that has the impact of getting McGregor and Jones in the cage, then fans will be in for a treat.

Although there is still some work to do when it comes to McGregor, the ‘TUF’ 31 series has shown that there is an appetite to see a McGregor-Chandler bout given the bad blood that has emerged. Time will tell how it all plays out.

You can stay up-to-date with the latest happenings in the world of boxing and MMA by visiting boxingblitz right here.