JON JONES has confirmed a highly-publicised rumour about his axed fight with Tom Aspinall.
The MMA icon was on course to have a historic heavyweight title unification bout with the Brit after his destruction of Stipe Miocic last November.
Jones publicly demands “f**k you money“ to unify the belts against the Wigan warrior.
He agreed to the fight after the UFC met his demands, but performed a sensational U-turn by vacating the belt in June with an incredibly short-lived retirement.
It was reported that Jones demanded a career-high payday of £27.7million ($30million) to throw down with Aspinall.
And the 38-year-old has now revealed that he was indeed in line to receive that mammoth payday in his latest public campaign to fight on the UFC’s White House card next June.
He told the Geoffrey Woo podcast: “My goals aren’t traditional anymore.
“Most fighters wouldn’t turn down $30m, they just wouldn’t do that.
“My goals are different these days.
“The White House would be something for my personal list.”
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Jones has been angling for a clash of fan favourites against current light-heavyweight champion Alex Pereira for over a year.
He said of ‘Poatan’: He has the ‘it’ factor, he is blessed. It can’t be taught, you can’t have a publicist show you.
“Some people have a thing about them that makes people want to pay attention.
“The only thing he says is ‘Chama’ and people [cheer]. He has the ‘it’ factor and it’s part of the reason I want to compete against Pereira.
“The brand and the energy he has behind him will be remembered more than five years from now.
“Pereira, fighting a guy like that, brings more to the table for me.
“How cool would be that be? Just to be a part of the White House card.”
Convincing UFC bigwig Dana White to let him top the bill at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, however, will prove difficult.
During an appearance on the Flagrant podcast, White said: “I can’t put Jon Jones in a position where he can (pull out).
“We had a deal to fight Tom Aspinall, and he said, ‘You know what, I’m not going to do it.’
“He didn’t want to do it, I can’t be in that position.”
