UFC News: Dana White Slams Rankings Panel Following Jon Jones Snub

UFC 309 showcased some incredible fights, including the return of heavyweight champion Jon Jones. Jones handily defeated Sipe Miocic en route to his 16th title win.

More news: UFC Star Tom Aspinall Believes Jon Jones Loses Sleep Over Their Potential Fight

After the big win, it’s hard to argue that Jones isn’t the greatest mixed martial artist that has ever graced the sport. Despite Jones defeating the greatest heavyweight the UFC has ever seen, he continues to be out of the top spot for the men’s pound-for-pound rankings.

UFC President Dana White has long complained about the rankings, especially how it relates to Jones. Now, White has gone after the rankings panel, which is made up of media members who cover the organization. This system has been in place since 2013.

White screenshot the men’s pound-for-pound rankings, stating:

“I have to get rid of these CLOWNS!!! @zuck Let’s get this AI dead done ASAP!!!!!!”

White referred to the panel as clowns considering not only did Jones not claim the top spot, but he only moved up from third to second. White has complained about Jones’ rankings for months, and it was hard to agree with him considering Jones was inactive for so long.

Jones defeated Ciryl Gane to claim the heavyweight title in March 2023. Instead of facing the likes of Tom Aspinall, Jones waited to fight Miocic, who he also claimed was the greatest heavyweight of all time.

Jones ended up being injured, tearing his pectoral muscle, months after the victory against Gane. This led to a further delay, and Aspinall acquired the interim heavyweight championship title during that time.

Instead of a unifying match, Jones stayed adamant about facing Miocic due to his legacy within the heavyweight division. Jones dominated Miocic at UFC 309, which White believed would place the heavyweight champion in the top pound-for-pound spot.

That is not the case, and lightweight champion Islam Makhachev remains No. 1. Makhachev only has three title defenses to Jones’ 15. It’s hard not to understand why White is so upset.

White also tagged Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook. White spoke about the rankings back in October, stating that he and Zuckerberg were working on a new system for rankings that includes using AI.

More news: UFC News: Dana White Reveals Organization Will Go Back to Using Old Gloves Permanently

“I could go on and on and on but I won’t,” White said. “We literally had meetings this week to work on it. I actually talked to Mark Zuckerberg, too, about AI, so yeah. I’m totally going to fix the rankings. We’re going to make a lot of strong moves here coming into 2025.”

Time will tell what White plans to do about the rankings. It appears he plans to completely change things up, especially since Jones has once again been disrespected in his eyes.

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