In his public campaign to be booked for the UFC White House card, Jon Jones has found the unlikeliest of advocates.
While UFC CEO Dana White continues to shut down Jones’ ask to be added to the announced June 2026 event on the White House lawn, longtime bitter rival and current UFC color commentator Daniel Cormier has now endorsed Jones’ proposal.
“If I’m being completely honest, I don’t know that I agree (with White),” Cormier said in a video posted Saturday to his YouTube channel. “I think I’d let him fight. I think if he wants to fight, I’d let him fight because, for as much as mixed martial arts is a global sport and it’s a sport that everybody loves and we support people from all around the world, at the end of the day, when you’re fighting at the White House, you want American people that can win.”
Cormier pointed to Sept. 13’s Noche UFC event during which Mexican and Mexican-Americans had a sweeping night of success topped off by a thrilling Diego Lopes victory. With no American fighters in the UFC’s current pound-for-pound top 10, Cormier sees a need for potential American stars at this event, considering the theme.
“Imagine if we’re on the White House lawn and the Americans aren’t winning fights – and that could happen,” Cormier said. “When the opening line for (Conor) McGregor vs. (Michael) Chandler comes out, Chandler is going to be a pretty substantial underdog, as he should be. Even though Conor hasn’t fought forever, he’ll still be the favorite to beat Michael Chandler. But if you put Jon Jones against Tom Aspinall for what everybody says, that Tom Aspinall is the guy to beat him, when that line opens, I bet Jon Jones is still going to be the favorite. He’ll be the favorite to beat Tom Aspinall. He’ll be the guy who’s the world champion, or at least was the world champion before he vacated his title and retired. He’ll still be the favorite to win that fight. I think you’ve got to let him fight.”
From what he’s stated publicly, White’s central reasoning for not wanting Jones on the White House card is the unreliability of Jones to make it to fight night. Jones has butted heads with the promotion at the negotiating table in past years, and has piled up legal issues outside of the cage. Cormier said the solution is to put clauses in Jones’ contract as safeguards of him pulling out.
“I think you put some things in his contract that makes it very costly to not follow through,” Cormier said. “Do you understand? If you put Jon Jones on the White House card, say something that happens in the law, and he has to be pulled from the card, $1 million. Say he just says he doesn’t want to fight, $1 million. Say he gets injured, then it should be less, as long as the injury can be proven. If the injury is proven, charge him nothing. He’s just a normal fighter, who got injured in training camp. But you put these safeguards in place to make sure that he shows up there. Because one, you make a card with him and Conor McGregor? Massive. Massive eyes will be on that card. Two, you put an American guy in there in the main event that has a real chance to win the fight and send everyone home, feeling very good. It’s why the good guys win at the end of movies, because they want to feel good leaving the theater, except for Million Dollar Baby, which was a bullsh*t movie because that woman died or something at the end of the movie and I hated the way I felt when I left. Nobody goes to the movies for that sh*t. We go to the movies to see sh*t and feel good when we leave.
“I think that the White House card deserves the chance for that to happen. Because hey, we have no American guys in the top 10 of the pound-for-pound since Jon Jones retired. That’s crazy. Come on. Come on, boss. It’s me asking you to give Jon Jones a chance. That’s crazy. But the renderings are sick. The White House is going to be nuts, and the boys will be there. So let’s go.”
