Dana White furious at Jon Jones still being denied P4P #1 spot in favor of Islam Makhachev, seeks Mark Zuckerberg's help to "get rid of these CLOWNS"
Dana White recently reacted to Islam Makhachev holding on to the UFC pound-for-pound (P4P) king status despite Jon Jones successfully defending the heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 last weekend.
In the aftermath of Jones beating Miocic, he was bumped up one spot to No.2 on the official P4P list, pushing Alex Pereira down to the No.3 rank. Considering that White has been vocal about why Jones deserves to be the P4P king over the past few months, even vowing to change how the rankings system works, he was unsurprisingly disappointed at 'Bones' not surpassing Makhachev.
White has previously mentioned using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to rank fighters, and it appears he's looking to ask Mark Zuckerberg for help. In an Instagram Story, White posted a screenshot of the updated P4P rankings and wrote:
"I have to get rid of these CLOWNS!!. @Zuck, let's get this AI deal done ASAP!!!!"
Check out Dana White's story below:
When Dana White talked about using AI to "fix" the UFC's rankings system
Last month, Dana White addressed the UFC's P4P rankings issue and claimed he had enlisted Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg's help to fix it. The UFC CEO envisioned AI changing the way rankings are decided, in stark contrast to the voting method as done by promotion-selected media outlets since 2013.
During an interview with TNT Sports, White outlined his plans for 2025 and expressed his frustration with the current system. He said:
"I could go on and on and on, but I won't. 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." [H/t: ESPN MMA]
Watch the full interview below:
In another interview with Robbie Fox of Barstool Sports, White detailed his exact issues with the current system and shared some examples of what didn't make sense to him. Pointing out that Max Holloway was below Justin Gaethje in the rankings despite KO'ing him at UFC 300, White said:
"Jon Jones is the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world. Let me talk to you about the media and the rankings. Let's look at the lightweight division, look at number nine. We got Max Holloway. Max Holloway is number nine [as of September 14].
"Now go from nine up and look at number three, someone he just knocked out at UFC 300, Justin Gaethje, he basically beat him twice. So he's three, Holloway is number nine, how the f**k does that make sense in any universe?"
Catch Dana White's comments below (12:24):