Jon Jones tells Dana White to ‘spend a little to gain a lot’ – How much is Ngannou’s fight worth?

Instead of building what would be a massive super-fight between a light heavyweight legend and the new UFC heavyweight champion, Jon Jones called out Dana White for doing the opposite of his job as a promoter.

Shortly after UFC 260, White immediately relied on his “he doesn’t want to fight” trademark on fighters trying to be better paid. The UFC president questioned the character of the all-time great and said Jones is probably better off dropping to 185 pounds than facing Francis Ngannou.

Jones, of course, didn’t like hearing about it and responded in kind on social media.

“What a great way to promote the fight. Let’s piss off Jon Jones and make him look scared. How dare he ask to be seriously paid for a serious fight, ”Jones replied via Instagram.

White also noted that a rematch with Derrick Lewis is actually the fight to go despite their historically bad first encounter, and Jones vs. Ngannou likely to shoot a lot more.

Jones responded by saying that he believed that even with a well-deserved raise, everyone involved would be ready to make a lot more money in this fight.

There’s also this exchange between Jones and his former rival at Chael Sonnen, the fighter turned broadcaster in line with the company:

Jones seemed taken aback by the logic of White’s statements. What he lacks, however, is that it has always been about control than winning more in an event, with the UFC’s desire to keep its mark bigger than the fighters themselves. They would certainly earn a lot more by reserving Jones-Ngannou even after giving Jones a raise, but “giving in” to him could open up even more fighters demanding better pay.

Giving the title fight to Lewis or other much cheaper alternatives would help meet the old UFC goals of giving fighters only 17% of earnings. They’re also willing to bank on the bank anyway, with the ESPN deal guaranteeing around $ 20 million for a PPV event, whoever the headliner is.

So how much would this fight actually be worth for the UFC? Based on UFC financial records, we calculated that Jones had previously generated “about $ 14 million in additional revenue per event” on his light and heavy title fights compared to your normal UFC PPV. This Ngannou super-fight is guaranteed to be bigger than his typical title defense, so here’s a financial breakdown of the possible scenarios:

It’s a very good possibility that the heavyweight superfight draws better numbers than Gaethje vs Ferguson. If it attracts around 850,000 purchases – the same estimate as the comparison they presented Fury vs. Wilder 2 – then we could consider an additional $ 27 million in residential PPV.

If Jones vs Ngannou ended up being a blockbuster, like the 1.1 million purchases reported for McGregor vs Cerrone from UFC 246, then we could talk about an additional $ 37 million in residential PPVs in the United States, Canada. and New Zealand.

Jones has generated a significant amount of income for the UFC over the years – roughly $ 108 million above the UFC floor in 2012-2017 alone – but how much is he actually making now? After a decade at the top of the sport, Jones claims he receives over $ 5million per fight after his last UFC contract dispute, but we also know he’s done a lot less on his previous title fights. .

He’s not likely to receive even close to the potential money he will generate here, but will he even get a slight raise to keep the fight booked? Jones says he’s still keeping his hopes up.