Jon Jones warned he’s ‘missing’ key hurdle in front of Alex Pereira superfight at the White House

Jon Jones warned that Alex Pereira won’t wait until June to make his UFC return

Pereira is pursuing Jones at heavyweight instead of a historic third divisional title for the time being, and the Rochester native has responded positively to ‘Poatan’.

But during a recent episode of his Good Guy/Bad Guy ESPN show alongside Daniel Cormier, Chael Sonnen warned Jones that if he thinks Pereira will wait until next June to make his return, he’s got another thing coming.

“Jon Jones does not appear to get it. He just doesn’t,” Sonnen said. “As successful as he’s been in this business, he doesn’t really pay attention to it.

“It is very difficult to book Jon on the White House card. … We know nothing about it because the card isn’t here yet. If Jon Jones would like to be part of that, I think it’s very obvious that he needs to do something first.

“February would be a very realistic date for Jon Jones to start talking about, but to start talking about something three seasons away…it’s really annoying,” he added.

“If the stipulation was Jon Jones (saying), ‘I’ll fight Alex Pereira, it’s gotta be at the White House,’ Pereira’s gonna go, ‘Well, I am not interested. I am not gonna sit on the sidelines at 37 years old when I’ve got a world championship right now and I can get pay-per-view points three times before then.’

“That seems to be one thing that Jon keeps missing.”

Alex Pereira vowed to ‘make the heavyweight division great again’ after UFC 321

Jones’ response had come after Pereira’s reaction to Tom Aspinall vs Ciryl Gane at UFC 321.

Having seen the first undisputed heavyweight title fight in almost a year end in disaster, ‘Poatan’ teased the Jones fight while promising to fix the division.

“Let’s Make the heavyweight Division Great Again! x = ”

Sonnen evidently expects a hurdle to stand in the way of Jones vs Pereira on June 14 in the form of at least one other fight for the Brazilian earlier in 2026.