Joe Rogan recently claimed on his JRE podcast that he’d heard that UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones was holding out for a $30 million payday to fight Tom Aspinall, but he’s now backtracked on that after speaking to Dana White.
“I had heard a rumor that Jon Jones wanted $30 million to fight Tom Aspinall — and I did hear that rumor, and I did hear the UFC said yes, but it is not true,” Rogan told Theo Von on his show. “So Dana contacted me and said that rumor was bullshit, so I felt obligated to tell everybody that was a fake rumor.”
Rogan went on to say that at this stage it’s still not clear whether Jones will actually fight again, or if he’ll just opt to hang up his gloves for good while he’s still at the top of his game.
“Apparently Jon is thinking about retiring,” Rogan said. “And he should. He’s going to have to some day. I’m not saying he should retire, I’m saying he should think about it.
“Give the man all the time he wants. He can fight whenever he wants to fight. That’s Jon Jones. He’s the GOAT. So leave him alone. If he decides one day to come back, and he comes back and wants to fight Tom Aspinall for the heavyweight title… the question is, how long are you allowed to hold onto the title before they start having that conversation? Now, he just knocked out Stipe Miocic, so give the man months. Give the man five or six months. Just leave him the f*ck alone.
“But at a certain point in time, you have to decide who the heavyweight champion is. And if Tom is the interim heavyweight champion and Jon decides he doesn’t want to fight anymore, he could do that — and he could do that, come back in a year and fight for the title. He can do that. He can do whatever he wants.”
