UFC 165: Jon Jones admires Floyd Mayweather's 'ridiculous' payday

At least one person isn't jealous of Floyd "Money" Mayweather's huge huge huge payday for fighting Canelo Alvarez last Saturday. UFC Light Heavyweight champ Jon Jones was "encouraged" by the guaranteed $41.5 million that Mayweather earned while coasting to an easy decision win.

Here's what he told reporters yesterday in LA, including MMA Fighting's Dave Doyle:

"It's great to see a champion show his heart and his winning ways. It's great to see a champion get what he deserves. That really, really encourages me.

"(Mayweather's payday is) ridiculous, in a good way," he said.

"Boxing has been around over 100 years," Jones said. "The foundation is set and the money is there. MMA is so new. You can't just expect to be paid, if we're going to be paid $40 million, what is the UFC going to make? Floyd is his own production. We're a fairly new sport. I'm grateful for the money I make. As a 26-year-old I could never imagine being in this position.

"I don't think money is the key to life, or happiness," Jones said. "Would it be nice? It would be great to be paid the way other athletes will be paid. Doing my part, paydays closer to that, hopefully I'll be the guy to get us there through hard work, longevity.

No wonder Jones is keeping hope alive for a Super Fight against Middlewight champ Anderson Silva and even talking about boxing one of the Klitschkos. The man sees where there is the most money to be made and it's not by fighting Daniel Cormier or Glover Teixeira.

Jones will earn a little bit of change against Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 165 this Saturday in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He earned a reported $400,000 to bash Chael Sonnen at UFC 159 earlier this year but that figure doesn't include any % of the pay-per-view proceeds he might have earned or any locker room bonuses thrown his way by the UFC management. Such extras are believed to put Jones' per fight earnings over $1 million.

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