Dana White Compares Untold Jon Jones Stories to Michael Jordan Lore in New Video

UFC President Dana White compared former UFC Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight champion Jon Jones to NBA legend Michael Jordan during a conversation on the Pivot Podcast.

White's remarks were in response to a question from Fred Taylor (11:24 mark) about Jones' recent remarks to Manouk Akopyan of Ring Magazine, in which he credited White with changing his life.

"I say and I'll say again, he's the greatest of all time," White said at the 11:50 mark.

"A lot of these fights that he went out and won, he wasn't being very good to himself leading up to those fights, and when you hear the stories coming. It's like, Michael Jordan, right? Now you start to hear the stories about Michael Jordan, look I love Michael Jordan, just for the record here...

"So hearing these stories about where they're at, they're playing in the Olympics, and they play 18 holes of golf. And the guys are, 'All right, let's get out of here,' he's like, "No, I'm gonna play another 18 holes golf."

"And they're like, 'What the f--k are you talking about?' Plays 18 more holes of golf than he shows up, and I think [Chuck Daly] was the coach at this time. And they're like, 'You're gonna cover him?' He's like, 'No, I want to cover this guy.' You talk s--t in the paper about me, so I'm going to cover this guy, right?

"And you hear these stories about Michael Jordan now. I mean, 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 s--t out of world-class guys who trained hard to try to beat him."

White was referring to a story from the 1992 Summer Olympics, when Team USA men's basketball (a.k.a. the Michael Jordan-led Dream Team) dominated the competition en route to winning an Olympic gold medal.

Dream Team member and NBA legend Charles Barkley recalled a story (as relayed by Adam Stanley of PGA.com) where Jordan played 36 holes of golf on the same day that Team USA eventually beat Puerto Rico in the quarterfinals.

Jordan is arguably the greatest basketball player of all time, and Jones is arguably the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. Perhaps their pregame habits weren't always the best, although both were known as tireless workers and extremely competitive individuals who wanted to dominate their opponents.

In the Octagon, Jones was 28-1 with one no-contest. The one loss was a disqualification in 2009 due to illegal elbows against Matt Hamill. He also won 11 matches by knockout and seven via submission.

Perhaps those stories White referenced will drop someday on MMA's likely GOAT. In the meantime, White provided an interesting comparison to one of the best athletes of all time.