Dana White Says Jon Jones Likely Lost Up to $20 Million Over Personal Issues

Dana White spoke with he Dan LeBatard Show (via MMA Fighting) about Jon Jones and more. Some highlights are below:

On where Jones would be without his personal issues: “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.”

On how much money Jones has lost: “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.”

On the disappointment of not seeing Jones fight for the heavyweight title: “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.”

On who the best fighter in UFC history is: “It’s tough to not give that to Anderson Silva. Anderson Silva was doing things at the time that other people couldn’t do. He was so dominant and made it look so easy. There was a point in time when he made that 185-pound division look weak.”