Jon Jones is now the former UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion after the UFC stripped him of his championship following a one-year suspension handed down to the fighter by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
However, the interim championship isn't the only thing Jones has lost, which is something UFC President Dana White talked about on The Dan LeBatard Show.
“It’s got to be…who knows. I mean, if he moved up to heavyweight and fought for the heavyweight championship, it could have been massive. It could be anywhere from $15-20 million,” White said.
Jones could have been much more than a UFC Light Heavyweight Champion and UFC Interim Light Heavyweight Champion if he could keep his personal life in order, according to White.
“Yeah, he’s definitely one of the guy’s who could have gone down as one of the greatest ever. If you look at all the time he’s been out, he probably would have defended the title a few times. He might be fighting at heavyweight right now, who knows, but, hey man…when you do what this guy has done, you’ve got to pay the price. We’ve lost a lot of money, left a lot of money on the table and obviously his legacy is…I’ll tell you this, too…in the history of combat sports, nobody’s ever taken this much time off and come back and looked like they did when they were younger. Even [Muhammad] Ali. So it’s going to be interesting,” said White.
The UFC Heavyweight Title is a championship that Jones aspired to hold, but that may not be an attainable goal anymore for the fighter.
“I think so, yeah. I think because everybody looks at Jon Jones as the guy who was probably the best ever to do it. And the potential that he had. Who knows what fights we missed or what could have been because of all this madness,” said White.
Jones is not available to fight until July of 2017.
