The relationship between Jon Jones and the UFC has been a rocky-yet-fruitful one. The MMA G.O.A.T is recently retired, but he was willing to fight Alex Pereira on the UFC White House event for the heavyweight title. However, that didn’t came to be, and the former champ has stated his side of the story.
Jones posted on X, saying he “was ready, willing and physically able to step in. I was willing to take substantially less than the Aspinall ask but they [UFC] wouldn’t budge one dollar over $15m. I felt like our fight was worth more.”
It was reported that Jones asked for $30 million to fight Aspinall, and he even declared he would fight Pereira for less. Still, he felt the UFC cutting the check by 50% was not enough. Apparently, the organization wasn’t eager to negotiate either.
Dana White has sent shots to Jones as well
Dana White has always said Jones is the greatest of all time, but he’s always been clear on one thing: they don’t have the best relationship. A couple of weeks ago, White was asked about Jones’ presence on the White House event and he said “Jon can barely run. Jon Jones retired because of his hips. He’s got arthritis in his hips.”
White rejected the idea of even negotiating with Jones, to which Jones said, “So all of this negotiating was complete bulls—, is that what you want me to agree to publicly? Man, how f—— painful. Laying in my bed, wrapping my head around this perception.”
Pereira will fight on UFC White House
While Jones’ efforts proved ineffective, Pereira will indeed move to heavyweight and fight Ciryl Gane for the interim Heavyweight title. Pereira is going for an unprecedented record of becoming champion in three different categories. This is the UFC White House card:
- Ilia Topuria vs Justin Gaethje – Lightweight title
- Alex Pereira vs Ciryl Gane – Interim Heavyweight title
- Sean O’Malley vs Aiemann Zahabi – Bantamweight fight
- Mauricio Ruffy vs Michael Chandler – Lightweight fight
- Bo Nickal vs Kyle Daukaus – Middleweight fight
- Diego Lopes vs Steve Garcia – Featherweight fight