Dana White’s plans ‘for biggest fight in UFC history’ in major doubt as Joe Rogan makes bombshell retirement revelation
DANA WHITE’s grand plans for a historic UFC title fight could soon go up in smoke, commentator Joe Rogan has suggested.
The MMA mogul is currently in the process of negotiating what he believes could end up being “the biggest fight in UFC history“.
White and the rest of the UFC brass are hard at work trying to finalise a historic heavyweight title unification fight between undisputed and interim titleholders Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall.
White is confident of convincing Jones to stick around and unify the titles against the burly Brit, although Rogan has stunningly claimed ‘Bones’ is thinking of hanging up his gloves.
During a recent episode of his podcast, he said: “Apparently Jon is thinking about retiring,” Rogan said. “And he should.
“He’s going to have to someday. I’m not saying he should retire, I’m saying he should think about it.”
Rogan recently retracted his claim that Jones is asking for a whopping £24.5MILLION ($30M) to face Aspinall.
But the veteran commentator insists the MMA legend – who sensationally stopped Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 last November – deserves a mammoth payday.
He said: “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.
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“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**k 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.”
Convincing Jones to face Aspinall, however, could prove to be difficult as he’s been irked by the Wigan warrior.
During the UFC 309 post-fight press conference, Jones said of Aspinall: “He’s annoying to me.
“He’s annoying to me and that’s my own personal – he annoys me.
“I get it you guys find it entertaining, but I find him annoying.
“I just don’t like him and at the end of the day, if I give him the opportunity to fight me, I want to be so compensated.
“I want to say it, I want that ‘f**k you’ money, honestly. That’s just what it is.
“Or else my life is perfect without him.
“I don’t need him at all and he needs me and that’s a good place to be in a negotiation.”