Jon Jones claims Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) offered him $15 million to fight at the upcoming UFC White House card this June, but that simply wasn’t rich enough for the Octagon legend.
Fight fans may have expected to see a Jones vs. Alex Pereira superfight lead the much-anticipated White House card, but Pereira ended up being matched up against Ciryl Gane for the interim UFC heavyweight title. Fight fans were a bit shocked to see Jones skipped over, but according to UFC CEO Dana White the former
UFC champion had no shot of landing the main event nod.
While White is adamant that UFC matchmakers were never actually in talks with Jones to headline Trump’s birthday bash, “Bones” has confirmed that the negotiations were real. In fact, Jones stated earlier this month that he was “lowballed” for his Octagon return. Given the history between Jones, UFC, and White, fight fans really didn’t know what to think or what the lowball number really was.
On Saturday, Jones took to social media to shed some light on his failed fight talks with UFC brass. According to the former UFC light heavyweight and heavyweight champion, the promotion wasn’t willing to dish out more than $15 million for a superfight against Pereira at the White House card. This may seem like a lot of money even for Jones, but “Bones” was offered $30 million for a fight with Tom Aspinall back in 2025 and turned that down, too. Sounds like Jones expected more money for a fight with “Poatan” than last year’s proposed unification bout with Aspinall.
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“Was ready, willing and physically able to step in,” wrote Jones via X. “I was willing to take substantially less than the Aspinall ask but they wouldn’t budge one dollar over $15m. I felt like our fight was worth more.”
