In a world of madness Dana White seems to be a star shining across the sky. He has put on fights in an empty arena (successfully), fights at the UFC’s APEX institute (successfully), and fights on a beach (looking pretty damn near close to successful). The Twitter octagon is a stranger to no one in this sport and this time Dana stepped in with someone we didn’t expect (well some of us), Jon Jones.
All this started roughly three weeks ago when rumors started going around the fight game that Jon Jones was looking to make a jump to heavyweight and his likely opponent would be the red- hot Francis Ngannou. Jon seemed satisfied with the match. Although it wasn’t the rematch for the title Francis wanted, in essence, it was a super fight at heavyweight. All seemed good to go and Jon tweeted out “Currently in negotiations with UFC as we speak”. Now if you’re a fight aficionado like us at The Noise Media, you’re salivating at the thought of this clash of amazing proportions. What could possibly go wrong?
Jon Jones hopped back onto the good old Twitter machine not two hours later stating, “Before even discussing numbers, the UFC was unwilling to pay more for the Francis super fight”. A massive blow to the reality of this fight like a punch to the gut. Jon would go on to say, “Maybe when they’re ready to do better business I’ll come back” and later adding, “I actually think these guys do great business. Right now things just aren’t where I want them to be”.
Dana White, at an interview for UFC Vegas, added fuel to the fire by saying, “I always think about what Jon could’ve been, he could’ve been the Lebron of the sport” and adding, “I’ve tarnished you? You’ve done a very good job of tarnishing you”. Only the UFC and Jon Jones know the truth about how much money was being discussed. The word was Jon just wanted to make money similar to other UFC greats like Khabib who’s highest purse was $2 million and Jon’s was $500k.
This all seems to be part of a bigger picture in the end. The UFC is going to need to find a way to standardly pay these fighters. Jon Jones is looking for his cheese at a pivotal time in his career. He’s looking out for himself and who can blame him? Unfortunately, this fight does not look like it is going to be happening any time soon, fight fans.
