“I’m not retired, I’m actively training 5 days a week, and I’m training for the White House event.” That’s what Jon Jones said about coming out of retirement. The statement is enough to get a measurement of how the former heavyweight champion rated the UFC White House card. However, contrary to the expectations, Jones wasn’t included in the historic event. Shocking? Sure. But what could have been the reason behind it?

‘Bones’ is arguably one of the legends of MMA. And at this stage of his career, he is more inclined towards legacy matchups, where he is being paid a hefty sum. According to the reports, Jones demanded around $15 million to fight on the UFC White House event, which will go down on June 14. However, the UFC executives did not entertain that request. And for that, the negotiations seemingly fell through, resulting in Jones’ absence from the card. While it may lead one to speculate why UFC didn’t agree to the demands, Chael Sonnen analyzes the reason.

Sonnen on Jones’ failed UFC White House negotiations

“Let’s say the UFC came to a deal with Jon Jones for $15 million,” said Chael Sonnen on his YouTube channel. “Just by example, now, Jon Jones doesn’t have a lot of guys to fight… Alex Pereira relinquished the light heavyweight belt and became a heavyweight. That is the moment that Jon Jones now has an opponent. But I want you to understand how the UFC works.

If the UFC tells so you’re not paying Jon Jones $15 million to fight, you would have no way to justify that. You would have no revenue that’s going to change, that’s going to up that could justify that. You would just be giving him the money. Okay, but I want you to understand policy-wise, if the UFC agreed to give him the money and Alex Pereira then pulled out. You see where that’s a wildly different fight? Who are you going to put in?”

Sonnen’s concern stems from the lack of elite talents in the heavyweight division to face Jon Jones. Apart from fighters like Ciryl Gane, Alexander Volkov, and Waldo Cortes-Acosta, there aren’t any names who could actually be available to fight Jones. In the case of Gane, ‘Bones’ has already defeated him once via submission in just two minutes into their fight at UFC 285.

Meanwhile, Volkov and Lewis are yet to go up against contenders like Gane and beat them to be in conversations for a fight against Jones. With that in mind, of course, there is a lack of elite talent in the heavyweight division. As such, there are no competitors worthy of a $15 million fight against Jones if Alex Pereira pulls out.

According to Sonnen, this could have been UFC’s reason. And for that, instead of spending millions on Jones, the promotion took safe bets. Now, the UFC White House card will be headlined by Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje, with Alex Pereira and Ciryl Gane fighting in the co-main event. Both of these matchups are set to be for the lightweight and interim heavyweight titles.

By booking Jones against Pereira, of course, the title stipulation would have gone out of the picture. Now, this builds a different level of excitement where ‘Poatan’ could have an opportunity to become a UFC champion in three different weight classes.

As for ‘Bones’, for the second consecutive time, he failed to book a big-money fight for himself. That said, Sonnen also shared his two cents on why the former UFC heavyweight champion is demanding millions for a fight.

Chael Sonnen on why Jon Jones demanded $15 million

Ahead of his retirement, Jon Jones reigned as the UFC heavyweight champion and was linked to a title unification bout against Tom Aspinall. And interestingly, for that fight, Jones demanded $30-$40 million. Citing that, Chael Sonnen shared his two cents on why ‘Bones’ reportedly asked $15 million to fight on the UFC White House card.

“Jon goes to the post-fight press conference, and he calls for $40 million,” said Sonnen on his YouTube channel. “And where did he get that number? Well, I’ll tell you. There was a fight the night before. It was Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson… I think it was Jake Paul, who was paid $40 million. So, this number was just in Jon’s head. So, he just throws the number out.

And I bring that to you because he’s now revealing that when he wanted to fight on the White House card, he wanted $15 million. He wanted $15 million, but his reason for wanting that is because Conor Benn got $15 million.”

Conor Benn recently got signed by Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing for a one-fight deal worth $15 million. This is surely an enticing offer, considering just one fight under the banner. Given Jones’ stature in the promotion as one of the legends and his impressive 28-1-0 (1 NC) record, one can argue whether he deserved such a big amount or not.

But according to Sonnen, Benn’s deal may have been the reason. On that note, did UFC miss out on putting Jones on a historic event like the White House card?