Nowadays, money is no longer Jon Jones’ top priority. Before deciding to retire and leaving the heavyweight championship in the UFC up for grabs, Jones, with his 28-1 MMA and 22-1 UFC records, was set to face Tom Aspinall, then the interim heavyweight champion, in a title unification contest. This is not what Jones wanted, so much so that, reportedly, he asked Aspinall, with his 15-3 MMA and 8-1 UFC marks, to pay him $30 million.
Apparently, the UFC decided to call his bluff, and Jones was still not interested.
“Some of my motivations aren’t traditional anymore,” Jones said on Geoffrey Woo’s podcast. “I don’t think I care about what most fighters would care about. Most fighters wouldn’t turn down $30 million. They just wouldn’t do that. My goals are different than other people’s these days.”
Jones decided to retire, but with rumors of an event possibly being held at the South Lawn of the White House, Jones’ competitive juices kicked back into high gear. Jones’ “retirement” was but a brief one, as he made it clear that he intended to come back with plans to get himself placed on the card.
The CEO of UFC, Dana White, has been quoted repeatedly in interviews as not being entirely sure whether Jones can be trusted with such a high role. Jones has asked White repeatedly for this role but has also given him time to think about it.
But if Jones does get this fight, he’d prefer it to be against light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira, not heavyweight champion Aspinall, who he thinks will be virtually an afterthought in MMA in no time, unlike Pereira, who has already established his brand as a fighter.
“He has the ‘it’ factor,” Jones says.. “He’s blessed in some way. He just has ‘it.’ It really can’t be taught. You can’t have a publicist that come and show you how to become someone like that. There’s just some people that people just get behind. They don’t know why they love them or why they hate that person. Some people just have that thing about them that just makes you want to pay attention.”
Jones sees Aspinall as a quitter. “Bones” thinks he has come to understand Aspinall’s trait through his response to injuries sustained in his fighting bouts. Jones would have liked to see Aspinall try to get up after his knee exploded against Curtis Blaydes. Aspinall underwent surgery due to MCL and meniscus damage, along with his ACL. Jones was not pleased with his response to some severe damage inflicted by Ciryl Gane’s poke in their recent bout, which caused him to suffer a no-contest in the first round.
While trashing Aspinall’s character, Jones was hyping Pereira up. Jones believes Pereira is one of those few personalities that shine above all others, such as Conor McGregor or the Paul brothers, Logan and Jake.
“Pereira, literally, some of the only things he says is, ‘Chama,'” Jones explained. “And people are (yelling), ‘Chama!’ No one even knows what it means, but he has that ‘it’ factor. That’s part of the reason why I wanted to compete against Pereira. I felt as if the brand that he represents and the energy that he has behind him will be remembered more than just five years from now.”
“For example, Aspinall just had a close fight, and people are already writing him off. His journey hasn’t even started yet, and he’s already almost moved on. I feel like Pereria, fighting a guy like that, it would just bring so much more to the table for me.”
Pereira is one of the bouts Jones is waiting to materialize at the White House so he can continue proving everyone who doubted him wrong. As things stand, at 38 and already having his name all over the pages of history, Jones will not need any financial incentives to step into that octagon and rumble anymore.
“One of the greatest motivations is to continually prove people wrong of what I’m capable of,” Jones said. “There’s fighters that thought, ‘Man, he should have never made it this far. He drinks, or he stays out late. He eats McDonald’s. Why is he the champion?’ I love proving those people wrong. The people that are like, ‘Oh, well he doesn’t speak well enough, or he doesn’t do this right. No way he can go on and be this great promoter or be this reliable business partner.’ I love to prove people wrong.”
“It’s not a place of hate, it’s more about earning respect and realizing that I’m an immovable force that despite how you feel about me, you have to see me exist. You have to see me continue to smile and continue to move forward and to not be defeated easy. These are some of my motivations,” he explained.
