After weeks of butting heads with numerous journalists and fans over whether Jon Jones, inactive for well over a year, should be ranked on the UFC’s Pound-for-Pound list, promotion President and CEO Dana White is looking forward to a less combative rankings panel.
Currently, the rankings for the UFC are voted on by members of the media (for transparency, that includes journalists from this very site). Following Tuesday’s episode of Dana White’s Contender Series — that would be episode four of Season 8, or DWCS 70 overall, for those counting — during which a promo touting Jones’ accolades was aired, White suggested an AI-based rankings panel could be of interest to the promotion.
“Did you guys read the stats?” White stated during the event’s post-fight press scrum (h/t MMA Junkie). “He recently just beat the No. 1 heavyweight in the world. Hope you guys read that stat. You know what is f*cking great about technology? We’re not far away from AI actually doing these rankings, and it’ll be a great f*cking day when AI starts doing this sh*t. I’m really excited about that.”
By “recently,” White is referring to Jon Jones’ defeating Ciryl Gane in March of 2023, which remains the only heavyweight showing for “Bones,” who won the promotion’s vacant heavyweight title that evening. A planned fight with Stipe Miocic last year was called off due to injury, and is expected to happen next month. As for Gane, it was the French star’s second loss for the undisputed UFC heavyweight crown, after a previous loss to Francis Ngannou.
Most of the media’s objection to Jones’ being ranked atop the pound-for-pound list boils down to his inactivity. As a result, Alex Pereira and Islam Makhachev have both been ranked ahead of the former light heavyweight champ. Prior to the win over Gane, Jones had not competed for a full three years.
As for White’s excitement over rankings done by AI, how that would look and what metrics would be valued remains to be seen. And would likely be just as controversial as the current rankings.
