Days after Dana White labelled him the greatest UFC fighter of all-time, Jon Jones said he would walk away from his light heavyweight title amid a pay dispute with the promotion.
The American, 32, has his sights set on a lucrative heavyweight clash with Francis Ngannou, the division’s No 2-ranked challenger, but said the UFC did not want to pay him enough to make the step up a weight.
White, the promotion’s president, said at the weekend that Jones demanded “crazy money” and quoted sums of $15 million (Dh55m) to $30 million. Only last week, White had trumpeted the reigning pound-for-pound No 1 as the greatest UFC combatant in history.
However, late Sunday, Jones tweeted: “To the light-heavyweight title - veni, vidi, vici,” (the Latin phrase for “I came, I saw, I conquered”).
Asked by one of his 2.3m Twitter followers if he was giving up his title, Jones responded with a simple “Yes”.
When another follower suggested he was damaging himself more than the UFC, the light heavyweight champion replied: “I hurt myself every time I walk out there and take a punch to the head and not feel my pay is worth it anymore.”
Jones and White have been involved in a public spat this past week, after the former threatened to walk away from negotiations for the Ngannou fight, calling the discussions “unbelievable”.
After White claimed Jones wanted “Deontay Wilder money” – a reference to the well-remunerated former WBC heavyweight boxing champion – both men accused the other of lying.
Following the UFC’s latest event on Sunday, White hit back at Jones’ claims the promotion was tarnishing his legacy, telling reporters in Las Vegas that Jones was in fact doing that himself.
“He can do whatever he wants to do. He can sit out, he can fight, he can whatever," White said.
"Jon Jones can say whatever he wants publicly. It’s his God-given right here in America. And when he’s ready to come back and fight, he can.”
Jones, lightweight champion for almost a decade, has never been too far from headlines, both inside and outside the octagon.
Although he remains officially undefeated as a champion, with a mixed martial arts record of 26 wins and one loss (and one no contest), he has been twice stripped of the title - once for a hit-and-run incident and the other a failed drug test.
In March this year, Jones for arrested in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and subsequently pleaded guilty to DWI (driving under the influence). It was his second such offence.
