{"id":548682,"date":"2026-03-18T16:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T16:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/548682\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T16:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T16:11:09","slug":"dana-white-reveals-exactly-what-would-happen-if-jon-jones-fought-a-prime-muhammad-ali","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/548682\/","title":{"rendered":"Dana White reveals exactly what would happen if Jon Jones fought a prime Muhammad Ali"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dana White has revealed what would happen if Jon Jones fought a prime Muhammad Ali in a crossover fight. <\/p>\n

Jones<\/a> is widely regarded as the MMA GOAT following his incredible exploits in the UFC, having won championships at light-heavyweight and heavyweight.<\/p>\n

He called time on his iconic career last year but had eyed a comeback at the White House card, but was denied a spot on UFC Freedom 250.<\/p>\n

White<\/a>‘s team held negotiations with Jones before he ultimately decided against putting him on the historic event.<\/p>\n

Despite their spat<\/a>, the UFC CEO and president still believes he is the sport’s best ever.<\/p>\n

Asked to explain why, White referenced the different sanctioning organisations in boxing.<\/p>\n

“One of the things that happened in boxing is you had all of these different sanctioning organisations that all had different champions and different guys,” he explained on Verdict with Ted Cruz<\/a>. “All anyone wanted to do was stay undefeated.<\/p>\n

“So they would fight lesser competition to make sure that they got up to 25-0. But in MMA you went through the gauntlet, you fought the best of the best all the way to the top. So if you end up with a long career and you are still undefeated, you are the greatest of all time and that is Jon Jones.”<\/p>\n

Pressed on how ‘Bones’ would fare against a prime Ali<\/a> in the ring, White was in no doubt the former UFC champion would ‘rip him apart’.<\/p>\n

“Jon Jones would get inside, he would grab him and he would just rip him apart, yes,” he explained.<\/p>\n

\"MuhammadMuhammad Ali fought Antonio Inoki in a crossover bout in 1976. Image: Getty <\/p>\n

Ali is no stranger to crossover fights, having fought Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki in 1976 in a bout billed as ‘The War of the Worlds’.<\/p>\n

The rules agreed by Ali’s representatives meant Inoki could not use grappling or standing kicks.<\/p>\n

However, the Japanese wrestler, who fought the boxer without gloves, could kick his opponent while he was on the floor, prompting him to drop to the canvas in an attempt a kick to the amusement of the crowd, who had not been informed of these rules.<\/p>\n

After 15 rounds, it was declared a draw.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dana White has revealed what would happen if Jon Jones fought a prime Muhammad Ali in a crossover…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,802,958,786,11877,785,2823,85,787],"class_list":["post-548682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-dana-white","tag-fighting","tag-jon-jones","tag-mma","tag-muhammad-ali","tag-sports","tag-ufc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}