\u2018No one in the world doing this\u2019: Crazy KO defining Australia\u2019s most hyped UFC prospect ever<\/a><\/p>\nJon Jones and Tom AspinallSource: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
Immediately, UFC fans accused Jones of ducking, especially given the Pom had owned the interim title for 18 months.<\/p>\n
While Aspinall has since been awarded the heavyweight crown, Jones is still being called out for not only avoiding the fight, but having initially bypassed the No.1 contender for a showdown with 38-year-old former champ Stipe Miocic.<\/p>\n
Speaking this week on the Impaulsive podcast, longtime MMA journalist Ariel Helwani effectively confirmed the ducking claims while also revealing Jones had been offered a UFC purse worth US$30 million.<\/p>\n
When converted, the deal would have been valued at $45 million Australian dollars.<\/p>\n
Asked about potentially avoiding Aspinall, Helwani said of Jones: \u201cHe didn\u2019t want to fight him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it was a calculated decision on his part.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did you drag this out all the way until June when you knew you weren\u2019t going to fight him?<\/p>\n
\u201cHe gave the UFC a number.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe it\u2019s in the $30 million range for this fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd by the way, I think he deserves it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t think they would come up with the number, and they did.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe Saudi Arabia was involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe big dogs were involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said yes, and then two days later he said, \u2018Nah, on second thought, I\u2019m out\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he was hoping they would not meet the number and he could go, \u2018Hey guys, I tried\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC superstar Jon Jones reportedly rejected a purse worth $45 million when he skipped out on a fight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[5684,4587,42840,42843,5806,2840,18614,42844,42838,49,48,6681,42839,10359,42847,42849,42846,641,42845,42852,3466,42854,1866,42851,638,24119,1671,5185,18600,42853,15959,13341,35696,5685,42848,82,42842,18597,1972,181,42841,42850],"class_list":["post-67661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-africa","tag-america","tag-american-headliner","tag-ariel-helwani","tag-asia","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-awkward-fighting-style","tag-broadcasting-deal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chicago","tag-consecutive-world-title","tag-dana-white","tag-ducking-claims","tag-exciting-card-set","tag-fans-accused","tag-fighting","tag-heavyweight-fight","tag-heavyweight-title-fight","tag-illinois","tag-issues-warning","tag-jon-jones","tag-lawn-card","tag-mma","tag-nick-walshaw","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oceania","tag-purse-worth","tag-robert-whittaker","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-sean-strickland","tag-south-africa","tag-southern-africa","tag-sports","tag-title-defence","tag-title-fight","tag-tom-aspinall","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-western-asia","tag-world-doing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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