Jon Jones’ manager details how UFC White House talks ‘fell apart’ after Dana White’s recent dismissals

Jon Jones isn’t happy with Dana White and the promotion after being left out of the upcoming White House card.

Former UFC two-division champion Jon Jones was expected to be a big name on the upcoming White House card following his abrupt retirement last summer. But UFC CEO Dana White repeatedly dismissed the idea of Jones fighting at the White House after what he perceived as several red flags outside of the Octagon.

Tensions skyrocketed between White and Jones after the UFC head assured media at the UFC 326 post-fight press conference that Jones was ‘never’ part of the conversation for the card. Despite rumored talks to fight Alex Pereira and Tom Aspinall at the White House, Jones was excluded from the recent card announcement.

Jones went off on White in a recent social media rant, accusing White of lying about negotiations the two sides had ahead of this summer’s event. For the first time since UFC White House’s card was revealed, Jones’ longtime manager cleared the air on what happened.

Malki Kawa details frantic last-second negotiations with UFC over Jon Jones return

In a recent appearance on The Anik & Florian Podcast, Jones’ longtime manager Malki Kawa revealed what happened behind the scenes between his client and the UFC.

“I don’t know if that’s true because there was a negotiation there also as well,” Kawa said of the Jones negotiations.

“It just kind of didn’t go anywhere after a while. Wednesday I got asked, ‘Would you guys want to do this or that?’ And we said, ‘Absolutely.’ They gave us a number. We said, ‘Absolutely not.’ And then we didn’t hear anything after that. So, to me, there was no fight going on as of Wednesday afternoon.

“They couldn’t get there and then fell apart, so then they moved on to other stuff,” Kawa continued on Jones. “Now, one thing I will say though is, I do believe when I got that call on Wednesday, they were talking to everybody. That’s why when he says these guys weren’t supposed to be on the card, I believe that. Because even the way it was said to me, ‘Who do you want to fight? You guys can fight this guy, you guys can fight that guy,’ the money that was offered was small in comparison to what we had already said we wanted to fight those guys from before.” (h/t MMA Fighting)

Jones recently revealed that severe arthritis in his hip will likely result in hip replacement surgery in the near future. He hasn’t fought since a win over Stipe Miocic at UFC 309, before vacating the UFC heavyweight title last year.

Will Jon Jones fight in the UFC again after being left out of the White House card? Let us know in the comments!