Jon Jones is playing hardball with the UFC. The undisputed heavyweight champ, of course, has demanded ‘f**k you money’ to fight interim champ Tom Aspinall next. Otherwise, the GOAT contender has claimed to walk away from the sport entirely.

But just how much is said ‘f**k you money’ remains unclear. Well, Sean O’Malley‘s coach, Tim Welch addressed precisely this question on their ‘TimboSuga Show’ podcast. Surprisingly, Welch claimed that Jones made around $15 million for his UFC 309 clash against Stipe Miocic.

While reports claim ‘Bones’ had made somewhere in the $7-15 million for that fight, no one really knows. And Welch, by virtue of his proximity to the promotion may well have some inside scoop the rest of us don’t.

“Rumor has it Jon Jones made $15 million. You hear these numbers, you never know. Even Dana said ‘you guys will never find find out how much I actually paid Jon Jones.’ But he makes some heavy heavy bread but I saw 15 million. And I mean that kind of seems good, that seems pretty realistic,” Welch said on the podcast. This is why the coach felt that Jones would demand at least double that, around $30-40 million to fight Aspinall.

“But him versus Aspinall, how much are they going to have to fork out? What is Jon Jones going to come out, his management, are they going to say? $30 mil are they going to say $40 mil for this fight to happen?” he added.

And there are good reasons for Jones to demand such astronomical amounts of money. The last time he made a similar ask, the negotiations went south between him and the UFC. Dana White claimed he was asking for Tyson Fury kind of money (around $30M) to fight Francis Ngannou. so the UFC not wanting a repeat of the situation works in his favor. But that’s only a part of the bigger picture.

Aspinall favorite for Jon Jones fight as Welch thinks ‘Bones’s wrestling gives him upper hand

Tom Aspinall has opened as the betting favorite for a possible Jon Jones fight. Admittedly he is only a slight betting favorite, but a betting favorite nonetheless, and for good reasons. After all, Aspinall is younger, hungrier, and in his athletic prime. Not to mention he is naturally bigger than ‘Bones’, and has a remarkably well-rounded game.

This is perhaps why Jones wants astronomical amounts of money to fight the interim champ. After all, he will be risking his essentially undefeated record and GOAT contender legacy by going into the Octagon against Aspinall. But Welch doesn’t really think so. The coach feels that Jones may use his world-class wrestling to make short work of Aspinall.

“I was looking at some highlights on Twitter and seen Aspinall get thrown around by this pretty basic wrestler and I’m like ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if Jon Jones came out there took him down and beat his a**.’ Would you be that surprised ? Would anybody be?” he said.

Some experts believe that Jones is not apprehensive about fighting the Brit. In fact, this public show of indecisiveness is part of an attempt to get a bigger paycheck from Uncle Dana. Jones’ biggest rival Daniel Cormier said, “I would believe that he is negotiating publicly. Trying to get more money, and make the UFC go, ‘I need this fight because (the fans) want it so bad.’ Then they give him a number he can’t refuse.”

What do you think about Tim Welch’s thoughts on how much Jones could demand for a Tom Aspinall title unification bout?