Jon Jones rejects £7.25m offer to fight UFC champ Francis Ngannou as he rages at Dana White 'I want respectable numbers'

JON JONES has made it clear he will not accept anything under £7.25million to fight Francis Ngannou, and raged: 'I want respectable numbers'.

The former light-heavyweight king is again involved in a pay row with the UFC and president Dana White.

He has called to face Ngannou – who just knocked out Stipe Miocic for the heavyweight title – but reiterated his stance on receiving a purse increase.

Jones, 33, tweeted: "I had a brief phone meeting with UFC‘s lawyer Hunter a few days ago.

"As of right now I expressed to him that anywhere around eight to $10 million would be way too low for a fight of this magnitude.

"That’s all that has been discussed so far."

Jones enjoyed a career best £420,000 purse in 2017 for his rematch against Daniel Cormier.

But bonuses would have seen that figure rise, and in a tweet in May he revealed he makes upwards of $5m (£4m) per fight.

The American legend lashed out at the UFC for underpaying him during his dominant run in the last decade.

Jones wrote: "I believe I was grossly underpaid throughout my entire 20s.I’m not even here bitching about that. I just want to see the future done right."

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Ngannou, 34, backed the pound-for-pound star's call for a pay rise, and revealed he would be looking for the same.

Jones then compared the heavyweight fight to Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder's rivalry.

Wilder, 35, and Fury, 32, were both guaranteed £4m in their rematch, with the sum rising to £19.4m each.

They sold 800,000 pay-per-views in the US, not including the UK box office numbers, and Jones reckons a fight with Ngannou would be on the same level.

He posted: "Do you guys think this fight could be just as big as wilder versus fury?


"I feel like this fight is monumental, matchup‘s like this don’t come very often in a lifetime.

"Me stopping Francis in my first fight up at heavyweight would be nothing short of extraordinary. Ali versus foreman, hosted by the UFC."

Jones found himself in a similar spot with the UFC last year after White claimed he asked for £25m to fight Ngannou.

The ex-205lb ruler flat out refuted those accusations, instead explaining he wanted just a raise on his usual pay.

And he again stood his ground, sending a message to the UFC that the super-fight will not go ahead unless his demands are met.

Jones explained: "I just want respectable numbers, so that I don’t feel like a fool entering the biggest fight of my life."

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