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Jon Jones again threatens to leave UFC over feud with Dana White about Ngannou bout

For the second time in less than 10 days, Jon Jones appears to want out of the UFC.

Jones, in a series of Tweets on Thursday night and Friday, called out the UFC and president Dana White and asked to be released from his contract altogether.

Jones made similar comments last week, too, threatening to walk away from the UFC for good after it reportedly wasn’t willing to pay him to jump up to heavyweight for a bout against Francis Ngannou. Those negotiations, he said in a Twitter rant, were “unbelievable.”

He later walked those comments back. That beef, though, appears to be far from settled.

Jon Jones climbs onto the fence immediately after a light heavyweight mixed martial arts bout against Dominick Reyes at UFC 247 Sunday, Feb. 9, 2020, in Houston.
Jon Jones climbs onto the fence immediately after a light heavyweight mixed martial arts bout against Dominick Reyes at UFC 247 Sunday, Feb. 9, 2020, in Houston. (AP/Michael Wyke)

Deontay Wilder money

White this week said that Jones had asked for an “absurd” amount of money for that fight, according to MMA Fighting. While White didn’t reveal a set figure, he said on Friday that Jones had asked for “what Deontay Wilder was paid” for his rematch with Tyson Fury earlier this year.

“I’ll quote him and what he had said to my lawyer. He told my lawyer he wants what Deontay Wilder was paid,” White said, via MMA Fighting.

“I think it was $30 million was what Deontay Wilder was paid.”

Jones wasn’t having it.

Warning: Some of his tweets contain language that is NSFW

White, though, stood by his claims and even offered to pull out both receipts and a lie detector test.

“It’s fun working out in the gym in the morning and seeing tweets from Jon Jones saying I’m lying,” White said Friday, via MMA Fighting. “We have text messages from Jon Jones. It’s not like I can’t prove what I’m saying is true. We have text messages from him, but I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to put his text messages out in the press. I could.

“If Jon Jones wants to sit down and take a lie detector test about who’s lying and who’s not, we can do that, too.”

But Jones kept going on Friday afternoon, even at one point asking to be released from his deal. He also claims that he never asked for $30 million for a fight with Ngannou.

Jones defended his light heavyweight title already this year with a win against Dominick Reyes via unanimous decision at UFC 247 in February. He hasn’t lost in more than a decade, either.

A fight between Jones and Ngannou would certainly be entertaining. Ngannou beat Jairzinho Rozenstruik at UFC 249 this month with an early KO just 20 seconds into the bout, which marked his fourth straight win.

It’s unlikely that any such fight will take place in the near future. In fact, if Jones’ comments are to be taken seriously, he may not fight in the UFC again at all.

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