UFC: Dana White slams Jorge Masvidal, Jon Jones for pay demands – ‘you can say what you want, but I have a deal’

UFC president says he signed new ‘seven-fight’ deals with ‘Gamebred’ Masvidal and ‘Bones’ Jones months ago

White slams reporter and predicts ‘most of the media in this country is going to be laid off’

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UFC president Dana White speaks at a news conference after the UFC 229 mixed martial arts event in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2018. Photo: AP

Published: 6:42pm, 7 Jun 2020Updated: 12:04am, 8 Jun 2020

UFC president Dana White fired back at stars Jorge Masvidal and Jon Jones for threatening to leave the promotion unless they are given more money in future fights.

Light heavyweight champion Jones (26-1, one no contest) of the US last week said he would be relinquishing his title after failing to reach an agreement with the UFC to fight at heavyweight, with welterweight contender and BMF winner Masvidal (35-13) later telling White to “let me go if I’m not worth it”.

“Here’s the thing with Masvidal: we just signed a new deal with Masvidal,” White said at the UFC 250 press conference on Saturday. “He's got seven fights left on his deal. My people were working with him and trying to get a deal done with him when he already has a deal.

“Jon Jones has like seven fights left on his deal. He just signed a new deal less than a year ago. So guys you can say whatever you want, but I have a deal. We just did a deal with both guys – this isn't some sort of scenario where they had a new deal three years ago ... this was months ago.”

White then blew up at Yahoo reporter Kevin Iole when asked why there was a sudden influx of fighters on the roster asking for higher pay during the global Covid-19 pandemic.