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Daniel Cormier TV - Daniel Cormier REACTS to Jon Jones wanting $30 MILLION to fight Tom Aspinall
00:12:54
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- [00:00]
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- [00:36]
Bobby Bones
Hey, it's Bobby Bones. Join me and former NFL quarterback Matt Castle every Wednesday for our new podcast, Lots to say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle. Between us, we have over 17,500 passing yards, multiple New York Times bestsellers, and one mirrorball trophy from Dancing With a Star. So where else you can find a show with that much athleticism and football insight? We talk sports, but we talk pop culture and music. Music and a little bit of everything. Listen to Lots to Say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. The volume.
- [01:11]
Chael Sonnen
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- [02:09]
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- [02:47]
Chael Sonnen
So we're back 2025. We got to get rocking, we got to get rolling. And just as the year turned, it seemed as though the topics started to kind of pop up again in mixed martial arts. But one topic that we were talking about last year that has already made its way into 2025, and I think that speaks to how anticipated this fight is, is Jones vs. Aspinall. But the latest update in that situation comes from Joe Rogan speaking about what he says that Jones wants and what he thinks is going to happen in regards to that ask. So Joe Rogan was on his podcast the other day speaking about the Jon Jones, Tom Aspinall situation. And he said, Jon Jones said he wants 30 million to fight Tom Aspinall. I'll tell you guys right now, as a person that has been involved in big fights, a person that has sold pay per views, a person that at his time was at the top of the pay scale in the UFC as the heavyweight and light heavyweight champion, $30 million was literally a world away from anything we were making. I remember when I got paid in New York, I got like a big bump to take a fight on three weeks notice, which ultimately became my salary. And people were astounded with the number. But I will tell you, it was a fraction of what that number that he's asking for is, was nowhere near that. But I've heard now rumors that the higher end guys are making more. The Israel Adesanyas, the Jon Jones, the Stipe Miocic. I heard that Stipe Miocic made big money for the last fight. So when you hear stuff like, well, this guy made $7 million, generally, you go, well, he probably made about five, right? Three to five. But hell, if he's making three to $5 million to fight on that night to go get beat up like he did, no wonder Stipe Miocic said, I'm going to fight, right? But again, that is a world away from $30 million. Conor McGregor comes back to fight and goes, I want 30 million to fight. The UFC considers it. Why? Because when Conor McGregor was scheduled to fight at International Fight Weekend, the gate was $22 million. Sustainable business. You got to be able to sustain your business if you're going to be paying those types of numbers. Conor makes 22 million at the gate. Conor has sponsorships. Conor definitely sells a million and a half, 2 million pay per views. You can almost understand Conor McGregor saying, Give me 30 million and why it might happen. I don't know if Jones does that. Let me look at the gate from Madison Square Garden, UFC 3. See Jones vs. Miocic gate. A $16 million gate. That's a massive gate. That's a massive gate from Jon Jones. Okay? How many pay per views did they sell? Now when you start looking at it like that, you start going, I don't know if his ask is as crazy as people are saying. You can do 16 mil at the gate, you can do whatever you do on pay per view. You've got sponsorships for the fight night. Those aren't yours. You aren't bringing them in. But there are sponsors on fight night. Now, that ask is not so crazy. Rogan thinks that the UFC is going to pay it. Rogan thinks that the UFC will pay the 30 million to get Jon Jones in there with Tom Aspinall. I'm not sure he gets to 30, but if you ask for 30 and you get 20 or you get 15, that's a win for Jon Jones on his way out, right? Especially living in Albuquerque where everything is so dang cheap. I mean, it's not like he's not living in California. So it's a big number. And when you ask for that, it makes people start talking. Yambachovic said he feels like Jones is a little afraid of Aspinall. That's why he's calling out Pereira and asking for so much money. One thing, Jones isn't afraid. I think we've covered that time and time again. Jones is not afraid of Tom Aspinall. I think Jones recognizes, though, that this is a unique challenge in one that if he isn't on his game, Tom Aspinall can win, or at least it would seem that way. So Bisping said. Or he made headlines, saying Jones had a stroke of genius by denying Aspinall from the jump because it drove demand through the roof. It's all supply and demand, right, guys? Everything's supply and demand. When someone wants something, you can charge more for it. I remember when I bought a PlayStation 5 back around the pandemic. I paid $1,300 for a gaming console because I wanted it so bad, and they made it seem like it was never going to come out and it was impossible to get. So I was willing to pay so much to get it because I wanted to have it. Now, since the demand isn't as high, you can get a PlayStation 5 for 300 bucks. $300, you get a PlayStation 5, Jones said I ain't doing it. So then it made people go, I want this. I want this. And when you want something, especially you, the fan, because you drive everything, when you want something bad, the UFC tends to make it happen. Will it make it happen to the tune of 30 mil? I don't know. I wouldn't. I wouldn't say that it would happen. But what I do know is that they will be far more willing to have the conversation. So for all the times that everybody has said how horrible Jones is and he's stupid, he's idiot me being at the lead of this, very smart in the way that he's approached this, especially if he wins. Imagine if he wins. Imagine what happens to mixed martial arts if Jon Jones beats Tom Aspinall. After Tom Aspinall being the guy that everybody thought could beat him after Tom Aspinall doing what he's done to the heavyweight division. Imagine if he wins. Imagine a position he will find himself in in terms of negotiating power then, because for the company, for the UFC to move forward without Jon Jones, after all this time, this guy has been through three generations of fighters. For them to move forward without Jon Jones, they need him to lose. He needs to lose. He can't. He can't go and leave this thing undefeated for it to work, for Tom Aspinall to come out like this big, shiny new thing, to be the next big superstar, he has to beat Jon Jones. Because if Jones beats him or if Jon just walks away, no matter what Tom Aspinall does, there will always be that cloud that hangs over him. Well, you didn't beat Jon Jones. That's a problem. Because the way it looks right now after what he did to Curtis Blades, the way it looked against Sergey, the way he has dominated the division, the way he has dominated the division makes him almost like Francis when Francis became the champion. You can see him and go, this dude's the baddest man on the planet. But if he doesn't get a chance to beat Jones, it won't matter what happens now. Jones wins. I don't know that it hurts the ufc unless he walks away. If he stays and he keeps fighting, then they continue to make money hand over fist. And he will also continue to make money hand over fist. Chael Sonnen believes that this is it for Jon Jones. One time, one massive payday, and he's done. If he wins and he walks away, bad for the ufc. If he wins, continues to compete, that's a great thing for the ufc, because he'll be a biggest star than he's ever been. But supply and demand, as long as you guys are asking for it, as long as you guys are demanding that we see these two fight, the organization will go to different lengths to try to make it happen. To the tune to 30 mil. I don't know. I don't know. But when I look at Madison Square Garden, I see a 16 and a half million dollar gate. I'm like, man, it really don't sound that crazy anymore. It really don't sound that crazy. But Jon Jones ain't scared. Jon Jones has done probably the smartest negotiating I've ever seen him do for a kid that has spent that much time in this position. They'll fight. They'll fight because I think they'll make it happen. But when you start hearing all those numbers, you start realizing how big and how much the UFC is moving forward in fighting in, in terms of being more aligned with some of the other sports around the world. Jones leaves. You could do whatever you want. We could go Aspinall versus Pereira. We could go Aspinall versus this guy. This guy doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because even though Francis Ngannou isn't the name that Jon Jones is, people were saying when Jones became champ, well, he didn't beat Francis, right? There was a break in the heavyweight championship timeline, if you want to say it like that. We could make massive fights, but it will never overcome the idea that Jon Jones left us the champ, and then that would happen two times back to back. So it'd be a massive mistake. They got to get him in there with Aspinall, and you got to hope that Aspinall wins if you want the heavyweight title to continue being what the heavyweight title has been, because if he doesn't and Jones goes, I'm walking away as the greatest of all time as the reigning heavyweight champion. It's going to be a big shadow that the UFC heavyweight division will have to live under. But, yeah, this dude about to get paid. This dude is about to get paid. Supply and demand, ladies and gentlemen. Jon Jones has gotten something. He's got something that people want, and he's being smart about the way that he's allowing you to have access to it. So 30 mil fraction guys of what we were making at the top end. But, man, some of these numbers I'm hearing now, 7, 8, 10. These boys out here getting paid, man, and I'm happy for him. Guys, until next time, like, subscribe, tell your friends about my YouTube channel, because I'm here all the time, baby. And we gonna drop more and we dropping more and we dropping more. We gonna just keep hitting you with video after video. And boy, next week, UFC 311 in Los Angeles. Boy, we got some check ins for you. They about to be sick. It's 2025, baby. Let's go.
- [13:59]
Bobby Bones
Hey, it's Bobby Bones. Join me and former NFL quarterback Matt Castle every Wednesday for our new podcast, Lots to say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle. Between us, we have over 17,500 passing yards, multiple New York Times bestsellers, and one mirrorball trophy from Dancing with the Star. So where else you get to find a show with that much athleticism and football insight? We talk sports, but we talk pop culture and music and a little bit of everything. Listen to Lots to Say with Bobby Bones and Matt castle on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.