UFC President Dana White is not confident that Jon Jones' disqualification loss will be scrubbed from the records.
White sat down with ESPN's Brett Okamoto ahead of the promotion's big fight week that will feature three events from January 16 to January 23 to kick off 2021. They spoke on a myriad of topics, one being White's pursuit of clearing the lone loss on former UFC light heavyweight champion Jones' record. Jones' only career defeat came to the hands of Matt Hamill in the co-main event of The Ultimate Fighter 10 Finale back in December of 2009, but it was marred with much controversy.
“I’ve battled hard to try and get that one taken off the back of his record which is almost impossible to do. Which is insane, it is crazy that that thing doesn’t go away,” White said to ESPN (h/t BJPenn.com). “At the time, the Nevada State Athletic Commission was at it’s weakest, the guy who was running it was weak, the people who were involved were weak. Everybody was weak at the time. You should be able to look back and say okay let’s make this right. So far no good, I have really worked hard to try and get that one taken off his record. But, it is not looking good.”
Jones had Hamill mounted toward the end of the first round. He started throwing illegal downward elbows which caused referee Steve Mazzagatti to step-in, evaluate Hamill and then deem the fight a disqualification. White who has never been shy about his feelings towards Mazzagatti's officiating in the past has tried to get the decision overturned with the Nevada State Athletic Commission. However, White doesn't seem too optimistic anymore that the NSAC will take the defeat off of Jones' resume.
Jones hasn't competed since winning a controversial decision over Dominick Reyes at UFC 247, since vacating the light heavyweight title and making his intentions to move up to heavyweight very clear. White also discussed with Okamoto that his recent conversation with Jones was great, that this recent break from competing was beneficial for him, and what the perfect 2021 would like for the former light heavyweight champ.
"With Jon Jones moving up to heavyweight, I don't know," White said. "There's ya know, all the talk between him and Adesanya and I don't know. I don't want to get too excited, I don't even want to talk about it, Adesanya still has to fight Jan which is a tough fight, and Jones at heavyweight. There's so many massive hurdles that these guys have to get over."
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