Jon Jones only had praise for Jake Paul.
As Paul continues to make headlines in the combat sports world for mostly the wrong reasons, he did gain some favor from MMA fighters after calling out UFC president Dana White for underpaying the roster.
“Dana, you claimed you would bet $1 million on me losing. Set up Askren to train with Freddie Roach … gave him full access to [UFC Performance Institute] … and he still got his ass handed to him. Seems like you are the real d—- … not Ariel [Helwani]. In my third fight, I made more in total pay than any fighter in UFC history. Maybe it’s time to pay your fighters their fair share?
“No wonder they all want to get into boxing. Dana, you say you make the fights fans want to see … so hurry up and make [Jon] Jones vs. [Francis] Ngannou. Pay them their fair share … $10 million purse for each guy, plus PPV. Why are UFC fighters so underpaid vs. boxers? Why did I make more money in my third fight than all but two [Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor] UFC fighters have in history? I know why …”
That caught the attention of Jones — who is currently embroiled with the UFC over a bump in pay to fight Francis Ngannou — as the former light heavyweight champion went on to praise Paul for putting himself in the position he’s in as well as his victory over Ben Askren.
“Jake Paul congratulations on your victory, that knockout over Ben was absolutely beautiful,” Jones wrote on Twitter. “If you’re seriously making over 5 million for a fight already, that’s wild. I’m so happy for you. Wishing you all the best on your combat sports journey.”
And in typical fashion, Jones would delete the tweet soon after. That said, the message was clearly sent by “Bones” — and it’s hard to believe that most of the roster don’t agree either.