Jon Jones’ manager says Jones missed eight-figure payday from UFC 200

With USADA flagging Jon Jones for a potential Anti-Doping Policy violation, he was pulled from his title fight versus Daniel Cormier and missed out on his opportunity to unify the UFC light heavyweight belts.

Jones tested positive for two banned substances and missed out not only on possibly putting an end to his rivalry with champion Daniel Cormier, but also a huge payday, according to his manager Malki Kawa.

“You’re talking about an eight-figure payday,” Kawa said on Monday’s episode of “The MMA Hour” (transcribed by MMA Fighting). “Eight figures. Conor (McGregor) can talk about whatever he gets and all of that, Jon is by far the highest paid guy in the UFC, and the numbers that were shown that day for everybody from Brock (Lesnar) and the way down, Jon was making more than all of that. So for me, we lost out on an eight-figure payday, including myself. I wasn’t going to make eight figures, but I was going to get a percentage of that. The team was going to get a percentage of that. If you think that by any chance I’m going to sit here and be like, ‘hey man, take this supplement,’ then I’m just as stupid as the people who think that I’m an enabler.”

Regarding what Jones tested positive for, Kawa said they will continue to keep things to themselves while everything gets sorted out.

“I want to explain to everybody why I don’t disclose anything about it,” Kawa said. “It’s not that we’re trying to hide anything or that we’re not trying to get ahead of it and tell people what it is. I’m going to stand by our comments at the press conference. Jon, at no point in time, was a cheater, has never cheated, has never taken any substance that he knowingly knew of that was on the banned list. The same thing I did with Yoel Romero. You remember I came on your show, I said ‘hey guys, look, he didn’t cheat, we have an idea of where this thing could’ve possibly come from,’ and that’s only because we get notified.

“You take supplements, it could be anything. You could take freaking protein powder in a basic form, BCAAs, anything, and if it’s tainted with anything — the thing is people don’t understand, these supplements get made in manufacturing plants, and although it’s just supposed to be protein, the batch before that might’ve been some sort of testosterone booster that had some something illegal in it. So, if they don’t clean the machines out and all of a sudden that can be in that batch.”