Joe Rogan is retracting a claim that garnered significant attention in the MMA community.
The podcast-hosting powerhouse, comedian, and UFC color commentator mentioned on a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience that he was informed Jon Jones was asking for $30 million to fight Tom Aspinall. He expressed hope that the UFC would agree to this amount so the fight could occur.
In a new episode of his podcast, Rogan revealed that UFC CEO Dana White contacted him to debunk those claims.
“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 stated. “So Dana contacted me and said that rumor was bullshit, so I felt obligated to tell everybody that was a fake rumor.”
Rogan mentioned that the episode discussing the rumor was recorded “two weeks ago,” and he could not recall who originally informed him of Jones’ supposed price tag. His guest, Theo Von, then inquired about Rogan’s opinion on what number Jones might need to consider for the fight. Rogan acknowledged that the scenario could unfold in various ways following Jones’ dominant victory over former champion Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 in November.
“Apparently Jon is thinking about retiring,” Rogan remarked. “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.”
He added, “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.”
Rogan continued, “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.”
Aspinall has held the interim heavyweight championship since his impressive victory over Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295 in November 2023, which he followed by a quick stoppage of Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 this past July.
Since claiming the vacant title at UFC 285 in March 2023, Jones has only defended it against Miocic after recovering from injuries that sidelined him for nearly two years.
