"He could have been the LeBron James of this sport" - Dana White on Jon Jones

UFC president Dana White has reiterated his stance on the issue regarding a pay-raise for the reigning light heavyweight champion, Jon Jones and he will not budge. At Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 9 post-fight news conference, in response to Jon Jones calling him a liar, White left it on the media to decide who's fibbing and who's not.

“What do you do? Who do you believe? It’s up to you guys. What the (expletive) would I lie for? What do I have to gain from lying about it? Why would I lie? It doesn’t matter. You know what I mean? Obviously, he’s fired up right now.”

Dana White doesn't care if Jon Jones stays or leaves the UFC but he won't budge

White said that Jones has been in touch with UFC's chief business officer Hunter Campbell who also happens to be the former's lawyer, regarding the whole situation. However, the UFC frontman also added that he couldn't care less about the situation with Jon Jones, indicating that the choice to stay or leave the UFC rests upon the light heavyweight champ himself.

“(Jones) had a great talk yesterday with Hunter, my lawyer, who’s really close to Jon Jones and likes him. They have a good relationship. They had a good talk yesterday. It is what it is. I really don’t care. I couldn’t care less, to be honest with you."

Although the relationship between Jones and White has soured recently with Jones calling the latter a liar on social media, the UFC president doesn't mind giving credit where it's due. Speaking about Jones, White said that had it not been for the various kinds of troubles Jones kept running into throughout his career, the fighter could have been "The LeBron James of MMA".

“I’m always looking at what Jon Jones could’ve been. He could have been the LeBron (James) of this sport. He could have been that big. The stuff that’s he been through, to show up and think he basically (demanded) $15 million, or $20 million, or $30 million, it’s crazy. He can do whatever he wants to do. He can sit out. He can fight. He can do whatever.”

Dana had referred to Jones as his personal #1 in the UFC pound-for-pound rankings in a recent interview, and he still has the same opinion but he also stated that just being the greatest fighter of all time doesn't get you whatever amount of money you want, but being able to sell yourself does and with the history that Jones has, it's difficult for him to promote himself to a position where he can demand an amount as high as $30 million.

“Being the greatest of all-time doesn’t mean you get $30 million. Being able to sell (does). Jon Jones has done a lot of things to himself. In one of his tweets, he was saying I tarnished him. I tarnished you? You’ve done a very good job of tarnishing you. I haven’t done that.

White further mentioned that Hunter had asked Jones to meet him and discuss numbers but the champion just wasn't ready to listen; hellbent on making the promotion shell out the numbers he wants.

"Hunter told him. You can come in and walk through the numbers. ‘I’ll walk you through the numbers.’ And he says, ‘I don’t give a (expletive) what the numbers are. I want what I want, and that’s it.’ That’s not how life works. Why don’t you guys fly back and tell your boss, ‘(Expletive) what this company makes. This is what I want and you’re going to give it to me.’ See how that (expletive) works out for you.”