Jon Jones Demanded $30 Million To Face Francis Ngannou

Jon Jones is one of the most popular fighters in the history of the UFC. Last month, Jones reacted to the upcoming title fight between him and Francis Ngannou after Ngannou won the UFC Heavyweight Championship at UFC 260.

Jones previously revealed that he felt undervalued and simply wanted to be paid better. Now it seems the amount of money that Jones wants for the fight against Ngannou has been revealed.

While speaking on the Bill Simmons podcast, UFC President Dana White talked about Jon Jones’ demands. White stated that Jon Jones wants a whopping $30 million to face Francis Ngannou, which White doesn’t think Jon Jones is worth.

This happens a lot. What happens a lot in this sport is these guys are under contract. They sign deals, and then a fight will pop up and they’re like, ‘Oh I don’t want to fight for that deal now. I want a new deal’. So listen, you want everybody happy — you can’t make everybody happy — but you want to make them as happy as you possibly can.

Advertising

Advertising

In his deal, he’s talking he wants $30 million guaranteed,” he continued. “The way that this works is these guys all share in the pay-per-view. You just said yourself that you think this is going to be a big fight and I agree with you, and think it’s going to be a big fight, so he will share in the profits of the fight. That’s how it works. That’s how you run a business and you don’t go broke. That’s how that works.”

White didn’t seem too concerned about having Jon Jones face Francis Ngannou as he said that Derrick Lewis deserves the fight.

“What we do is, every Saturday nights I put on fights, and whoever wants to fight, we’ll make it and we’ll put them in there. We tried to work with Jon, and we eventually have to move on. Because realistically, and in all honestly, Derrick Lewis is the guy who deserves the fight.

At this time it seems unlikely that Jon Jones will be facing Francis Ngannou as Dana White doesn’t seem all that keen on paying so much money for Jones to compete. We will keep you updated on this ongoing story.