Brendan Schaub during 'War Dogs' film premiere, Los Angeles, USA - 15 Aug 2016 (Variety)
Jon Jones’ heavyweight debut is something that never seems to be happening
Jones switched to the UFC’s heavyweight division after renouncing his light-heavyweight title in August 2020. Bones was largely unchallenged and unmatched in the LHW division, and hence seeking bigger challenges he decided to move to the division with the strongest men.
9 months on, he still hasn’t made his debut, despite putting on weight and packing on the muscles.
The reason? – Payment dispute with UFC President Dana White. Jones was largely tipped to face newly-crowned heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou.
But he was rumoured to have asked around $30 million for fighting the Cameroonian, which didn’t sit well with White. Hence, White decided to move ahead with Francis Ngannou vs Derrick Lewis.
However, White did have another suggestion for Jones – Fight Stipe Miocic. Jones disagreed and, White claimed that he was helpless.
Former UFC fighter Brendan Schaub spoke to the Schmo, addressing the recent Jon Jones conundrum.
Schaub’s statements seem to align with Jones’ fight purse demands, as he stated that he would ask for a base fee of around $15 million and then get some share from the pay-per-views.
“If I am Jon, what would I fight for? I would do a $10-15 million dollar base fee and then a percentage of PPVs. If you get that PPV percentage…So, then he walks through with $20-30 million dollars.”
Jon Jones took some time off to answer fan questions on Twitter, like he always does. He revealed that he wasn’t sure, when he would be fighting next when questioned by a fan about his next fight and opponent.
‘Bones’ however stated that he felt good to get some downtime after a busy and buzzing win-laden decade.
Jones wrote:
The only reason Jones doesn’t seem to panic is that, he still has quite a number of years left in his fighting career, given that he is only 33.
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