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Jon Jones recently said Dana White is a "homie for life," and the UFC CEO agrees.
Jones, whose name is inked all over the UFC's record books, credits White for changing his life by opening the doors for his fighting career. No matter what happens, Jones said White will always be a friend.
"Yeah, and likewise," White said on "The Pivot Podcast." "Me and Jon have our, you know, there's the business side and then there's the personal side, but even on the business side, I always respect Jon Jones."
White has said many times during Jones' career, especially at the tailend, that he isn't always the easiest fighter to work with. Whether it be negotiating fights, turning down short-notice opponent changes, or the laundry list of issues outside of the octagon, Jones has given White and the UFC plenty to deal with.
Despite the headaches over the years, White still believes Jones is the greatest to ever step into the octagon, who also brought a lot of eyes to the UFC.
"Jon Jones knows who he is, and Jon Jones knows what he does and there's no delusion there," White said. "I say, and I'll say again: He's the greatest of all time. A lot of these fights that he went out and won, he wasn't being very good to himself leading up to those fights."
Jones has admitted he was not fully focused on his fighting career while on his historic light heavyweight title run. The self-admitted party animal famously told his rival Daniel Cormier that he beat him at UFC 182 "after a weekend of cocaine." Recently, Jones has seemingly been more honest with himself about how his lifestyle affected his career, but White hints that the world doesn't know half of the crazy Jones stories.
"When you hear the stories," White said. "Like, Michael Jordan, right? Now you start to hear the stories about Michael Jordan – I love Michael Jordan, just for the record. ... Hearing these stories where they're playing in the Olympics and they play 18 holes of golf, and the guys were all saying, 'Alright, let's get outta here,' and he's like, 'No, I'm gonna play another 18 holes of golf.' They're like, 'What the f*ck are you talking about?' Plays 18 more holes of golf, then he shows up, and I think Daly was the coach at this time. They're like, 'You're gonna cover him.' He's like, 'No, I want to cover this guy.'
"When the Jon Jones stories start to come out after he retires and he's gone and like whatever – I mean, the stuff that this guy was doing, and then coming out and beating the sh*t out of world-class guys who trained hard to try to beat him."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Dana White agrees Jon Jones is a 'homie for life'
