Jones needs to show the UFC he's willing to compromise

Underground
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When I say compromise, I’m not saying bend over and take whatever the UFC is offering, but I don’t think he can stick to his current line of negotiating. To recap, he’s saying he wants to fight Francis because he’s the champ, and the toughest challenge possible. Then says he should get a significant pay increase because it’s the toughest challenge possible.

I don’t necessarily see an issue there, I agree with him to a certain point…but where he starts to get unreasonable (in my opinion) is when he says it’s the only fight he’s willing to accept, and that he’s only willing to take it if they give him a substantial raise.

Dana was talking about Stipe, and Jon shot it down. Prior to vacating his belt at 205, he was offered defenses there as well and turned them down. I don’t think in any business relationship, any negotiation, you can demand to get everything you want, for the amount you want, and have no flexibility. It can’t be “this is what I want, or fuck you” and it feels like that’s where he is right now.

I made dozens of posts supporting him, saying he deserved the fight, deserved the pay increase etc, but I don’t think we’ll ever see it if the UFC tries to find middle ground, and he continues to tell them to eat shit. It sounds like the UFC offered him a raise, and he chose to pass. The UFC is talking about other options, and he’s rejecting it via twitter. I want him to get the fight, I want him to get the increase in pay, I just think he’s negotiating poorly.

And when I say he needs to chow he’s willing to compromise…I think he needs to show them something, give them a reason to negotiate, because if the fight doesn’t get made now, he runs the risk of losing it. The fight is a “super fight” right now because Francis has looked the way he has. The betting lines showed Francis in the -185 range…Jon is a betting underdog for the first time ever in a title fight (except maybe shogun?). If Francis fights Lewis and it goes the same as the first…Derek wins a shit fight, there’s no super fight. There’s no scary and dominant guy that will be a betting favorite over Jones…and that’s the fucking marketing angle, it’s not Jon trying to be champ/champ here.

Right now we have the perfect storm in terms of selling a fight…the right contender against the right champion at the right time. Francis just stopped the guy regularly talked about among UFC fans as the best HWT ever. Jon is the GOAT. It should be a HUGE fight. Jon vs Lewis? It’ll do fine on PPV, but won’t be this mega fight that gets him a huge pay increase. Even if Francis wins, if it’s a shit fight, or he shows some weakness in the Lewis fight…if dude looks human, the fight isn’t as big.

So my point is simple…if Jon continues to negotiate the way he is, he won’t get the Francis fight right now…and if he doesn’t get it now, there’s a very real chance it’s never as big of a fight…and with them saying Stipe can be next, there’s always the risk that someone else pops, and is someone the fans want almost as much as Jones. Timing is everything, and he might miss out on the biggest payday of his career by waiting.

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^^^FRAT^^^

The pay he deserves is whatever he brings in PPV numbers. Which he doesn’t draw like Brock, Conor, Ronda, Nate or Jorge.

Don’t know why the nonsense of fighting a “scary” fighter means you get hazard pay. Did Ngannous prior opponents all get a jump in pay too?

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What roejogan says.

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I agree but I think Jones would help his case by taking on Stipe, a winnable fight for him.

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Jones vs Francis does a million buys easy

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The problem with your response is that Jon is one of the most consistent draws in the history of the company. Nate has headlined 3 PPVs ever, and 2 were against Conor. Jorge has turned into a nice money maker for the company, but has also only headlined 3 PPVs ever. Brock was a big star, but wasn’t around long.

Jon Jones has sold more PPVs that every person on that list. That’s the part people are missing here. DC vs Stipe 1 sold less than 400K PPV buys and Jon does 500K on a bad night, and has topped 700K PPV buys the same amount of times GSP has…I’ve posted about it here multiple times before.

Jon did 600K+ with Anthony Smith…think about that for a minute, he sold more PPVs with Anthony Smith than DC vs Stipe sold in their best selling fight.

So I agree with you, Jon is worth what he sells in PPVs…and when Khabib makes $10M to fight Gaethje, a fight that does 660K PPV buys, and Jon makes less than haf that to sell the same amount of PPVs with Anthony Smith…and regularly tops the amount Khabib sold vs Gaethje, it’s pretty clear that Jon deserves an increase here.

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He does compromise. Why do you guys always believe every thing White says? The lies on fighters all of the time. Dana’s compromise is accepting what he offers.

If other fighters also fought, perhaps they would be making top money also like boxers.

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Yes, 100%. If he fights Francis next, it likely does 1.5M or so…and Lewis vs Francis won’t top 400K, so Jon being involved in this title fight makes a huge difference.

I posted it on another thread…Jon has sold more UFC PPVs than everyone not named Conor or Georges. He’s had something like 6 or 7 events over 700K buys, and before Conor arrived, that was massive. Guys like Masvidal and Brock were great draws for a short time, and while they made great money for the UFC on a given night, Jon has consistently brought big $ for them…and over the UFCs history, only Conor and GSP have more career PPVs sold.

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Where did Jon compromise?

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When has that ever been the case if your name isn’t Conor or Diaz? Jones could fight Stipe and risk getting KO’d. Whoops there goes any future for negotiations on anything after that.

Or he can win, and Dana could just say. “Why should I pay him any more, he took the fight with Stipe with same offer I gave him before”. Then we are back with the Jones doesn’t want to fight or Jones can simply not take any more fights for the rest of his life.

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Thats not the way it works. You negotiate the fight with the agreement that Jones gets the Ngannou fight next.

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I think Jones beats Stipe and I struggle to find a path to victory for Stipe. Jon is the better grappler, has better range and footwork, and is hard to hit. Stipe would need to KO him with one shot, and we’ve never seen Jon hurt, so good luck there. Francis is another story, one clean from that guy can KO anyone, but I don’t think Stipe would KO Jon clean with one shot.

As for whether he should take it…why TF should he have to? He’s the GOAT, most dominant guy the sport has ever seen…and he’s getting a non-title fight when moving up when every other guy close to him got an immediate title shot? Crazy. We’ve seen guys lose their title, then change weight classes for immediate title shots…Aldo is the only guy I can remember who needed to take a fight in another weight class before a title shot, and he lost that fucking fight and still got a title shot coming off multiple losses…and Jon should fight Stipe? fuck that.

My point in the opener wasn’t that Jon should take the fight with Stipe, my point is that he can’t demand Francis, and a pay raise, and immediately go to twitter to shoot down everything else. He should still angle for Francis and a raise, but has to at least play ball, and be willing to discuss the other options. You can’t just keep saying no, then going to twitter.

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What you didnt factor in is that Jones has God on his side!

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Jones has got to have 7,000,000 PPV buys in his career.
That’s a good 400,000,000 in PPV gross revenue plus whatever the live gates were.
They can give him 5-6 million plus PPV points for Francis.

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No Ma’am, We’re on a mission from God

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Jones spoke of a 8-10 million figure that Hunter Campbell said it would be. Jones has rejected it. He wants a figure higher than that.

I am not giving an opinion here. I think fighters should get more than the overall 18-20% they currently get.

But am not on a side really.

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Jones want’s nothing to do with Francis.

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I remember you from previous posts and enjoy reading your commentary.

I do have disagreement with your overall premise since it’s mostly based on longevity. Certainly, we could look at longevity and over an entire career, Jon has proven to be very valuable.

Ultimately, the fighters that have made the big purses have sold the most PPVs, on a per event basis. This has been universally true for all of the UFC’s well paid fighters. The only counter example I’ve seen has been your statement:

Are you sure about the accuracy of Khabib’s pay? If so, perhaps there is an explanation? Could it be that he gets a percentage of the overseas sales? After all, he is one of the most famous athletes in a huge region.

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Another problem with his 30 mil price is that there is a real chance he wins the HW belt. What happens next? The price ain’t gonna go down …

Imo, hes asking for too much too soon.

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I think he’s at an age and in a position where it’s preferable to do like 1 fight for 10 million rather than take damage doing 10 fights for 1 million a piece. 30 million is a lot of money and maybe he won’t fight Francis now, but if Francis wins his next fight, those 30 million are coming closer so he’s not losing anything by waiting.

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