Will Jon Jones walk away from UFC?
Have we finally come to the long winding crossroads in the saga between Jon Jones and UFC. An absurd question usually, but there's starting to get some serious smoke here. And like they say, where there's smoke, there's fire.
The 32-year-old Albuquerque native has fired a major salvo at UFC President, Dana White. The two have gone back and forth about the possibilities of Jones moving up to the Heavyweight division. A move, deep down, Jones probably wants as well.
In every media scrum White is asked about Jones. His most recent response was that the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion was asking for 'Deontay Wilder numbers.'
His last fight netted him in the $35 million range. Boxing has always gotten the lions share of the money because of the way the sport is set up. Plus with a small fraction of the card size, there are way fewer hands out for money.
Then came the retort from Bones. Instead of speaking to anyone in MMA media, the Light Heavyweight Champion did what he does best, took his side to social media. And he hit back at Dana White with some shots that Dominick Reyes didn't face in their fight.
Jones then went on to tweet asking White to not be a liar and saying that he never asked Deontay Wilder numbers. You can see that tweet here.
It did not stop there as Jones went on the offensive yet again and even told White to release him from his UFC contract as some other promotion will surely pick him up.
He once again commented on UFC and Dana White's treatment of him in another tweet.
Now, a lot of what Jones said might be true but the timing isn't the best to squabble about the money of any type of raise. The likelihood that the UFC would allow their second biggest draw to just walk away is slim to none. Especially since there would be no question he would go right to Paramount and likely sign with Bellator.
That would instantly create two semi-talked about in the past rematches. Lyoto Machida and Bellator double champ, Ryan Bader.
There could have been a third, but Chael Sonnen is done fighting. It could test and see just how good Vadim Nemkov is.
Names like Kharitonov, Mitrione, Minakov, Barnett, Kongo, and Nelson would happily line up to face Bones.
The UFC was part of MMA's first trade, but letting Jones walk away would be equivalent to Alex Rodriguez signing with the Texas Rangers.
But, between all the problems away from the cage and now business headaches, have the pair just reached the fork in the road?
It is possible. Remember, nothing lasts forever. But if cooler heads are to prevail Abe Kawa might need to calm his client down.