Over the last few days a spat between the UFC’s president, Dana White, and the promotion’s light heavyweight champion, Jon Jones, has played out in the public’s eye. According to Jones, he had made what he thought was the understandable request for a new, higher purse in return for going up in weight to fight Francis Ngannou. This was said to be rejected outright by the UFC, with the discussion never even getting around to money.
White’s response was to claim that Jones had asked for “an obscene amount of money,” one that was in the neighborhood of what Deontay Wilder received to fight Tyson Fury — $30 million guaranteed according to some reports.