Nina-Marie Daniele came to the defense of Jon Jones after the undisputed heavyweight champion walked out of an interview before it even began.
‘Bones’ was busy making the rounds this week, going through interview after interview as his long-awaited title clash with Stipe Miocic is set to headline UFC 309 in Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. Early on in the week, Jones made his thoughts on a future fight with Tom Aspinall abundantly clear—he’s not interested.
Jones sparked more ducking accusations from fight fans as he said in no uncertain terms that a fight with the current interim champion is not on his radar and he’d much rather fight Alex Pereira.
After fielding a slew of questions about Aspinall all week, Jones simply wasn’t having it anymore. Especially when he walked into an interview with TNT Sports only to find out that interviewer Adam Catterall had ties to Aspinall.
Jon Jones refused to do an interview with Adam from TNT Sports because of his ties with Tom Aspinall 😬
“Common sense tells me what type of questions I’m just going to get asked.”
🎥 @ufcontnt #UFC #MMA #UFC309pic.twitter.com/hRZ4YtkSsy
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) November 14, 2024
Nina Drama Defends Jon Jones
Of course, fight fans were quick to condemn Jones’ actions and further accused him of ducking Aspinall.
However, UFC interviewer and online personality Nina-Marie Daniele, also known as Nina Drama on social media, came to Jones’ defense.
“This happens on every fight card but most of you don’t know because the cameras are not always on,” she wrote on X in response to the above clip. “I’ve seen it happen to media many times. I’ve had UFC fighters decline my interviews because I’m friends with Sean Strickland or Alex Pereira and think I might be biased. This is nothing new and I have never taken it personally and I don’t think the guys at TNT took it personally.
“Put yourself in the fighters’ shoes. You are getting ready to fight another human in front of millions of people and declining an interview is just a way of protecting their energy, especially if they’re talking about someone you’re not even fighting at the moment.”
Daniele makes a pretty good point. Jones has been focused on fighting Miocic for well over a year. Why would he want to continue to answer questions about Tom Aspinall? It makes sense. We get it, but Jones had to know that walking out would only add fuel to the fire.
This happens on every fight card but most of you don’t know because the cameras are not always on. I’ve seen it happen to media many times. I’ve had UFC fighters decline my interviews because I’m friends with Sean Strickland or Alex Pereira and think I might be biased. This is… https://t.co/a5Fwv6mbJD
— Nina-Marie Daniele (@ninamdrama) November 14, 2024
