How dare you think about what is best for your career!

How dare you not let the UFC bully you!

How dare you not reward a choke-artist fighter who hasn't fought in your weight class and coming off a catastrophic loss talk shit his way into a title fight!

How dare you assert independence!

See what I did there?

Look, I've got Bones's back here. The UFC and Dana White have so diluted and watered down their own brand by all of these cards they thought it was a good idea to co-main 151 with Jay Heiron. Seriously. Go f*ck yourself, San Diego. Dana White has tried to create a culture within the UFC fighter family that they will say how high when he asks them to jump. Most undercard guys don't make a ton of money anyways. They don't have a union to protect themselves. So most guys go along with it because they have to. If they try and wiggle free, White will go before the MMA lemming media that bows to everything and go nuclear on the fighter. Yesterday's press conference was amazing because nobody tried to challenge Dana, push back, ask why it isn't unreasonable for a champion to not have time to prepare for a fighter who talked his way into the fight. It was a disgraceful performance by both Dana and the assembled "media" who were glorified note-takers.

I get that there are fighters out there who are pissed and Jones and think he's a pussy. But this is a seminal moment in the UFC-fighter relations. Bones has created a brand name for himself where he has actual leavridge with the UFC and can make them jump a little. I respect that. He's a young man and a champion, and he has earned the right by virtue of who he's beaten to take some control back in his fighting life. Chael Sonnen? Really? One day some of these fighters who are a pissed off right now about losing their check may end up as a champion, and they may end up in a position where Dana tries to force them, again, into doing something they don't want to do. And then because of what Jones has done here, standing up for himself, they might do it too.