Dana White claims Jon Jones asked for ‘absurd’ money to fight Francis Ngannou; Jones calls him a liar

UFC president Dana White and Jon Jones are once again at odds, this time over a proposed fight with heavyweight boogeyman Francis Ngannou.

Over the past couple of weeks, Jones has teased a possible fight with Ngannou after they went back and forth at each other in a series of social media exchanges. The war of words drummed up a lot of interest so Jones reached out to the UFC to see if they’d be willing to book the fight.

He then claimed before negotiations ever really got started, the UFC shot down his request for more money and the Ngannou fight was dead in the water.

On Thursday, White was asked about Jones’ financial demands to fight Ngannou and he alleges that the money discussed was so astronomical that the conversation ended rather quickly.

“It’s one thing if you come out and say yeah, I want a little more money,” White said when speaking to ESPN. “The amount of money that Jon Jones wanted … first of all you have in the light heavyweight division the Dominick Reyes fight is the fight that makes sense.

“So is Jon Jones going to go in and fight Francis Ngannou and then try to take a run at the heavyweight title? I don’t believe that. He’s never wanted to move to heavyweight before and for the amount of money he’s asking for, it’s not going to happen. He couldn’t be asking for a more absurd amount of money at a worse time.”

Well it didn’t take long for Jones to hear about White’s comments regarding the proposed fight with Ngannou and the light heavyweight champion immediately fired back.

“It’s interesting to just sit here and watch your boss lie to the camera like this,” Jones wrote on Twitter. “We never discussed any increase in pay. Immediately the conversation was that I already made enough. I never made a number offer.

“If you’re not going to change my contract for the heavyweight move, at least have the decency to be honest with the fans.”

Jones continued by adding that he was going to put the Ngannou negotiations behind him and move forward with his next fight but he couldn’t stay silent in the wake of White’s comments.

“I was over the situation but I’m not gonna sit back and allow Dana to lie to the fans,” Jones said. “I never asked for an absurd amount of money. That’s bullsh*t. Absolute bullsh*t.”