Jon Jones Tells UFC $8-$10 Million is ‘Too Low’ for Francis Ngannou Bout
Jon Jones continues to be at odds with the UFC regarding financial terms, and the former light heavyweight champion has once again taken to Twitter to express his concerns.
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“I had a brief phone meeting with UFC‘s lawyer Hunter a few days ago,” Jones wrote on Twitter. “As of right now I expressed to him that anywhere around $8 to $10 million would be way too low for a fight of this magnitude. That’s all that has been discussed so far.
“I’m supposed to be waiting for what their offer is going to be.
Really hoping the numbers are nowhere near that low. I guess we
will see what happens.”
After Ngannou knocked out Stipe Miocic in the UFC 260 headliner on March 27, Jones tweeted “Show me the money,” which led to a contentious exchange with UFC president Dana White, who responded to Jones Twitter comments at the post-fight press conference.
“If I’m Jon Jones and I’m home watching this fight, I start moving to 185,” White sad. “Listen, I could sit here all day and [ask] you, ‘What’s ‘Show me the money” mean?’ I tell you guys this all the time: You can say you want to fight somebody, but do you really want to?”
On Wednesday, after sharing his initial thoughts regarding what he doesn’t want to be offered, Jones explained that he felt he was underpaid by the promotion throughout his 20s during his dominant rise to prominence as light heavyweight champion.
I’ve been working my ass off for years, concussions, surgeries, fighting the toughest competition UFC had to offer throughout my 20s for right around #2 million per fight,” Jones wrote. “I’m just trying to have my payday, the fight that all of us fighters believe is one day possible.
I tweeted show me the money and that evidently pissed off the boss. What a learning lesson. I feel like if Conor [ would’ve sent that same tweet there would have been whiskey night.”
There’s no question that a potential Jones-Ngannou matchup will be big business for the UFC. At the moment, though, it appears that there won’t be a smooth path to making it happen.
“I feel like this fight is monumental, matchups like this don’t come very often in a lifetime,” Jones wrote. “Me stopping Francis in my first fight up at heavyweight would be nothing short of extraordinary. Ali versus Foreman, hosted by the UFC.”
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