Jon Jones Requests Release
Source: Flickr
Jon Jones (26-1-0) has requested a release from the UFC.
“Please just cut me already,” Jones tweeted Monday.
After Francis Ngannou knocked out Stipe Miocic at UFC 260, Jon ‘Bones’ Jones thought he was the obvious choice to face Ngannou next when tweeted, “show me the money”.
However, UFC President Dana White had other thoughts.
“Listen, I can sit here all day and tell you, what’s show me the money mean? I tell you guys this all the time,” White said at a press conference after UFC 260. “You can say you want to fight somebody, but do you really want to?”
White insinuated that Jones only wants to step in the octagon for a payday and doesn’t want to do what it takes to compete at this level.
Jones responded via Twitter, calling White’s comments a "huge slap in the face".
Jones hasn’t lost since 2009, the only other blemish on his record being a no-decision result due to a failed drug test. The 33-year-old is a clear threat to anyone in the UFC, but his relationship with management has kept him out of the spotlight.
Jones and White beefed last year when the two did not see eye-to-eye on Jones’ financial demands to face Ngannou. This rift resulted in Jones releasing the light heavyweight title, with a promise from White that Jones would get to face the winner of Miocic/Ngannou 2. However, White has backed out that promise and instead named heavyweight Derrick Lewis as Ngannou’s next challenger.
In their previous matchup, Lewis defeated Ngannou via decision in 2018. Overall, it was an unexciting three rounds with only 31 total strikes landed, which makes White’s comments even more confusing. If he thinks Jones is going to dance around the octagon just to collect his check, isn’t he worried about another dud from Ngannou and Lewis?
What it boils down to is money, as it always does. White knows he can get Lewis to agree for half the price, so even if the fight is a dud, it won’t impact the UFC’s gains.
“You would rather have me around and treat me like sh*t,” Jones tweeted. “I swear the UFC industry has been nothing but depressing for me...I feel like my wings are being clipped.”
White is wary of allowing any individual fighter to become more valuable than the UFC, and I am willing to bet that he won’t succumb to Jones's outrage. If Jones wants to prove he is the best heavyweight in the world, he will have to do it at White’s price.