Former UFC double champion Daniel Cormier has his reservations about Jon Jones’ desired purse for a heavyweight title unification fight against Tom Aspinall.
Following his win over Stipe Miocic in their controversial UFC 309 main event this past November, Jon Jones claimed he requires ‘F*** you money’ to fight interim champion, Tom Aspinall.
With that, UFC icon and commentator, Joe Rogan recently claimed that the figure ‘Bones’ is looking for is $30m which would be astronomical compared to the standard UFC pay.
Daniel Cormier doubts Jones will get $30m to fight Tom Aspinall
Before the end of 2024, UFC CEO Dana White, provided a positive update on the potential of a fight between Jones and Aspinall, stating he is ‘100%’ confident that they can make that fight happen.
Although negotiations have already begun between the promotion and the two heavyweights, it is unclear whether the UFC is willing to pay the 37-year-old champion his desired $30m.
And with that, former UFC double champion and former rival of Jones, Daniel Cormier, doesn’t think Jones will get his desired payout of $30m as it would be ‘a world away’ from what fighters usually get paid.
“I’ll tell you guys right now as a person that has been involved in big fights, a person that has sold pay-per-views, a person that at his time was at the top of the pay scale in the UFC as the heavyweight and light heavyweight champion, $30m was literally a world away from anything we were making,” he said on his YouTube channel.
“I remember when I got paid in New York, I got like a big bump to take a fight on three weeks’ notice which ultimately became my salary and people were astounded with the number.
“But I will tell you it was a fraction of what that number that (Jones) is asking for is, it was nowhere near that,” Cormier continued.
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Jones’ pay for his fight against Miocic was not published, however, his pay for his fight against Cormier at UFC 182 was, and he reportedly earned $500k for his win but that didn’t include bonuses such as PPV points.
Some reports suggest that Jones earned over $3.6m including PPV points and sponsorships following that fight, ranking it the 11th biggest payout in UFC history.
Cormier also recently revealed that for that fight, despite picking up a loss, Dana White gave him a huge bonus of $1m.
Cormier believes Jones could get $15-20m for his fight against Aspinall
UFC 309 broke the $16m gate which Cormier believes when you add into that how many PPVs it sold, Jones’ call for $30m may not be too much of a longshot.
“Now, when you start looking at it like that, you start going, I don’t know if this ask is as crazy as people are saying.
“Rogan thinks that the UFC will pay the $30m to get Jon Jones in there with Tom Aspinall. I’m not sure he gets to $30m but if you ask for $30m and you get $20m or you get $15m, that’s a win for Jon Jones on his way out,” Cormier added.