Basically Dana White said that a "true" champion will fight anyone, anytime to prove they are the best.
This was said sometime after after the press conference announcing the cancellation of UFC 151 - and I'm sure Jon Jones not wanting to fight Chael Sonnen on 8 days notice was most likely on his mind when that comment was made.
Other things Dana White says on this subject are "Do you want to be an F'n fighter?" and "You're either a fighter or you're NOT." I agree with with the comment & the question as well. You're a professional fighter, you get paid to FIGHT. If you don't want to fight anyone, anytime... then go get a job flipping burgers somewhere - because you're not a fighter, you're a poser!
Now, I'm not trying to pick on anyone, even though I'm going to mention some specific fighters. This is my opinion I'll be expressing. I'm not a fighter, so I may not have the optimal point of view, but I feel that it shouldn't matter on this topic.
I'll repeat what Dana White said, paraphrasing to fit my thoughts on what a "true" champion really is how they should behave.
To me, if you are a professional fighter (actually if you are a fighter - because amateurs should strive to act professional even as an ammy, because that is what they wish to do for a living) you should be prepared to fight.
If you are a champion, then you should be willing to fight ANYONE, ANYTIME to PROVE you are the BEST in your division! How can the title mean anything worth respecting if you pick and choose who you want to fight and who you don't want to fight?
And for someone like Jon Jones, a fighter who is talked about as one of the greatest of all time, that is added pressure to prove that this is a valid claim... and when you factor in how the UFC is marketing Jones as one of the faces of the organization - how can Jon Jones act like a primadonna and basically run scared from a fighter like Chael Sonnen?
For someone like Jones, who claims to have the "Warrior Spirit" it is baffling how he can posture like this about a new opponent 8 days from the scheduled date of his fight. If he is so good, and if his camp is the number 1 camp in the business - how can they not be able to get a gameplan in place and have Jones prepared in that time period?
What is the worth of Jackson/Winklejohn gym if they can't get someone being call the best pound-for-pound fighter, and possibly the greatest of all time ready to fight an opponent with 8 days notice - especially when you consider that Jones has been training for a fight for weeks, if not months?
I'm tough on Jones, but that's because he puts himself out there as this "Warrior" who is head and shoulders above the competition. If he hadn't done this I wouldn't be making this entry with him as a subject.
But another person I feel isn't exhibiting the behavior of what I feel a true champion does - is Anderson Silva.
Silva is another fighter some people call the "greatest of all time" and the "best pound-for-pound fighter" - yet Anderson likes to pussyfoot around with who he will and won't fight.
Silva & his people have gone on record saying that he will "never" fight Jon Jones. This is the statement from a coward in my opinion. You can't dabble fighting in the Light Heavyweight division by fighting people like James Irwin, Forrest Griffin & Stephan Bonnar - but not want to fight the other guy people are saying is the thing you also claim to be.
If you're the best, then PROVE it! Don't run and hide from the other guy people say are the best, fight that person & see who of you two really deserves being considered the G.O.A.T. and/or the best pound-for-pound fighter in the business. Don't run from this fighter and make excuses. Anderson Silva obviously walks around near, or above, 205 pounds. So he can't cry about Jones being much heavier than he is. And Silva can't claim he's ad a disadvantage by fighting someone from another weight division, especially when you consider he is totally willing to fight the best fighter in the division below his Middleweight - Georges St-Pierre at 170 pounds.
Personally I think G.S.P. will destroy Silva, even with the weight disadvantage. Supposedly this "super fight" will happen at 180 pounds, which still favors Silva a bit. But I feel Anderson doesn't want any part of Jones because he KNOWS he can't beat him.m... and losing a fight would all but crush his claim to being the best ever as well as the best pound-for-pound fighter.
For the record, I feel Joe Rogan is totally wrong about Silva. In a promo for UFC 153 Rogan says that "there is no dispute" to Silva being the greatest of all time, or that he's the best pound-for-pound fighter. Problem with that is that Rogan himself contradicted this claim a month prior, when he was basically saying the same thing about Jones for his title fight at the PPV event prior to Silva's on October 13th.
Rogan has zero credibility on the subject. He's an employee of ZUFFA. He's a trained monkey doing whatever they want him to, a puppet that will say whatever they pay him to say, regardless of whether the facts back up whatever propaganda he is spewing for Zuffa & the UFC at any particular moment. Rogan is a company man, and he says whatever hypes the fight the best to make money for Dana White & the Fertitta brothers.
But never mind that. Rogan isn't talking facts, he's expressing an opinion. It may be his, it may have been given to him... but it's just an opinion. Technically there's no empirical way to quantify who the best pound-for-pound fighter is anymore in MMA. To do that you need to get rid of the weight divisions & have the alleged contenders fight it out & see who comes out on top. But that won't ever happen, especially if Silva refuses to fight Jones. Jones, St-Pierre & Silva are three contenders, if they all fight each other you would see who legitimately could claim that distinction. Until/if that ever happens, it's just people expressing what they feel is right, and that's always a biased opinion based on intangible factors.
A similar thing happens when you try to figure out who the greatest of all time is. You can't put a fighter like Royce Gracie against a Jon Jones or an Anderson Silva now & have it mean anything. Fighters from different eras can't compete on a level playground, except in a computer simulation... and that's just for pretend. So, until Doc Brown brings the DeLorean around to put the candidates for G.O.A.T. together... it's a moot point.
You can have your opinions on both subjects, but opinion isn't fact.
But, back to the main topic.
Another aspect of what a "true" champion is not trying to take the "easy" fight. There are no easy fights unless you try to fight someone so below you're level of talent, and what does that gain you? If you are a champion, how does fighting the people at the bottom of the rankings make your title belt mean anything worth having? (it doesn't) Unless you constantly face the best opponents in your weight division you do not deserve to be called the champion. You are a paper tiger, and not to be respected or feared.
The only real "easy" fight is the one you make through being totally prepared for your opponent. Do everything you can by the book & with honor and dignity... and defeat your opponent quickly. Or by leaving not doubt in anyone's mind that you dominated the fight. If you want an "easy" fight, then train hard & finish your opponent before any chance can be had for you to lose. Don't try to get a fight with someone beneath your abilities, that is not how a "real" fighter would act, let alone a "true" champion.
Another aspect of what I feel a true fighter and champion is are the subject of banned substances & weight cutting. It really falls into the overall topic of cheating, but I'll address them separately.
Only a coward or someone who knows they can't win fairly would sink to the level of trying to get an advantage ("fair" or "unfair") over their opponent. A true fighter and/or champion will face their opponent with dignity & honor, not hide behind banned substances like steroids, or skirt the limits of what is legal & not legal by using TRT/HRT. Testosterone Replacement Therapy & Hormone Replacement Therapy by anyone other than those documented to have a legitimate medical need is a coward & a cheater in my opinion. And there are far too many people who have the "legitimate" doctor certified testosterone treatments - again, in my opinion. I feel that someone like Randy Couture MIGHT have a case, but (allegedly) he didn't use TRT/HRT when he was an active fighter... so if he didn't use it, then fighters in their 20's and early 30's have no business crying to get this exemption - which I consider to be legalized cheating.
Similar in concept is the fighters who walk around several pounds above the weight they fight at. It's one thing if you are 5 - 10 pounds above the limit of your weight division, but to be 10, 20 or more above is cowardly & just a pathetic way to get an unfair advantage over your opponent.
People will say "It's not against the rules" and that is true. It's not against the rules to eat broken glass either, but who would try that as a gameplan for success? Just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you SHOULD do something.
Brock Lesnar supposedly walked around close to 300 pounds, but would cut weight to make the 265 limit. He fought Randy Couture (who was close to 220 pounds for the fight) and by fight time he had about 80 pounds on the champion. Where is the honor in that? How does that make a fair matchup? I know Couture agreed to the fight, but that's some bullshit to not have a Super Heavyweight division.
I say the weigh-ins should be the day of the event, not the day before. This would make fighters compete in the division closest to their walk around weight, and I feel that blood/urine testing the day or week prior as well as immediately after the fight for ALL fighters will help prevent people using banned substances, or abusing allowed substances.
It's not perfect, but this helps level the playing field - and weeds the cheaters out from those trying to compete honestly and to the best of their natural abilities.
Here's something fighters that have to cut weight and their coaches don't think about.
If you have to cut weight, that means most of that final week before they fight is spent focusing on cutting the weight, not on other (more important) aspects of the fight at hand. If you're worrying about weight, you're not spending time better used on evaluating the video of your opponent to see what they do wrong. You're not trying to examine where you could do better based on your previous fights. You're not working on your cardio, or your strength, or your speed. You are devoting almost every moment on cutting the weight, and everything else suffers because of that.
You are punishing your body unnecessarily. You are making yourself miserable, and weakening your system... you are basically doing your opponent's job for him before the fight even starts.
All for some imagined advantage you think you'll have over the other guy... when if you fought at a weight closer to your everyday weight you could be doing things that final week of training camp that would increase your chances of winning on the night of the fight. Your head would be clearer, your body would be stronger, you would be peaking at the right moment instead of coming in at a questionable amount of readiness.
But if you didn't try to get that advantage & just fought with honor & dignity, acting like the professional you are supposed to be - you'd be giving yourself a better chance than if you would by whatever you may or may not gain from trying to take a shortcut of fighting in a division so below your normal weight.
To sum things up...
Don't be a coward or a cheater. If you claim to be a fighter, then you will fight when the promotion you work for asks you to, against whoever they put in front of you. You won't try to get a weight advantage, or use substances not in your system naturally. You'll behave with dignity & honor, as a professional fighter and a mixed martial artist.
And if you are a champion who wants to be taken seriously & be respected for your accomplishment of being the best in your division - you'll fight anyone, anytime... not try to pick & choose who you'll fight.
And don't try to say you're the best ever or the best of anyone regardless of weight if you run from someone that wants to fight you. Be a man (or a woman if you're a female fighter) and take on all comers to your title. have the belt mean something people can respect by proving you deserve to be at the very top.
If you can't do that, then why do you bother to pretend to be a fighter?
And if you're a member of the media, or a promotion, or even a fan... don't enable the cowards & primadonnas who have a belt, but don't act like a true champion should. Doing that makes you part of the problem, not part of the solution. Things won't change until that behavior is stopped.
It's like Dana White says, "You're either a fighter or you're NOT" - so the question is, "Do you want to be an F'n fighter"? If so then FIGHT!!
