Dana White claims he ‘fought hard’ to overturn Jon Jones DQ loss — but NSAC has ‘no record’ of his effort

Newly-crowned UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones has one defeat on his professional MMA record, a disqualification loss to Matt Hamill at The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 10 Finale way back in late 2009. “Bones” was flagged and bagged by referee Steve Mazzagatti for landing illegal 12-6 elbows from mount.

Relive the drama here.

“I didn’t win that fight, I did something illegal,” Jones told UFC.com after losing to Hamill. “Maybe that’s my youth and inexperience. I messed up and I didn’t win. If I was smarter I would have thrown elbows more correctly so I gotta go back to the drawing board.”

Jones has since “learned not to care” about his loss.

In the years that followed, promotion president Dana White claimed to be working with Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) to get the loss erased from the archives. Even UFC color commentator Joe Rogan was crying foul over the “dumbest rule” in MMA.

“That one loss on his record, we’re trying to get that [overturned],” White told ESPN in June 2019. “It was at a time and a place in the Nevada State Athletic Commission when it was at its worst. It was the weakest commission ever in the history of Nevada and the referee that reffed that fight shouldn’t have even been in there and he disqualified Jon, which shouldn’t have happened either. So hopefully we can get that overturned.”

That was the last anyone heard about White’s anti-DQ campaign until Jones, a former light heavyweight, made his Octagon return earlier this month to capture the 265-pound title by disposing of Ciryl Gane in the UFC 285 pay-per-view (PPV) main event.

The buildup to that bout reopened some old wounds, at least for White.

“That [Hamill] fight should have been stopped, it should have been over, and Jones should be 27-0,” White told The Jim Rome Show. “I fought hard to get that one taken off his record but I haven’t been able to get it done. It’s horrible. It’s a referee that I said a million times should not even be in the Octagon, but what are you going to do?”

A valiant effort by White … or was it?

NSAC insists it has “no record” of any formal request by White or UFC to get the Hamill loss reversed, according to a new report by Bloody Elbow. That means White was simply posturing to promote Jones before each of his big fights or tried dealing with commission officials behind the scenes.

Either way, it sounds like Jones will be stuck with that DQ for the rest of his career.