Leigh Leopards owner offers £1 million bet to UFC champion Jon Jones

Leigh Leopards owner Derek Beaumont has seemingly laid down a £1 million wager for the UFC Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones.

In one of the most bizarre stories of the 2024 off-season so far, the Leigh Leopards owner has taken to social media calling the American superstar Jones out on his ‘b******t’.

Jones is widely regarded as the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) in the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) which is the premier Mixed Martial Arts competition in the world. One of the reasons why the UFC is so prestigious is for its ability to make any fight given that all fighters fight within one organisation.

That is unlike other combat sports such as boxing where fighters may have different promoters and can also fight for four different belts meaning there can be four separate ‘World Champions’ at any one weight. The UFC’s mantra is that of one belt for one weight.

However, the heavyweight division currently has a champion (Jones) and an interim champion, Tom Aspinall, who hails from England. The Mancunian is widely regarded as the best in the division and over the course of Jones’ recent fight week, the prospective fight between the two men was discussed a lot.

Aspinall has previously spoken about Derek Beaumont and his encouragement, something that inspired him ahead of his knockout win over Sergei Pavlovich last November.

Now, the Leigh Leopards has thrown his hat in the ring in an attempt to get the fight made after taking to social media to post a video and lay down a £1 million wager, which he will allegedly give Jones should the American avoid having his ‘a**e kicked’ by Aspinall.

Leigh Leopards owner gets involved in UFC drama

Sharing a video from an airport lounge, the Leigh Leopards owner would film his surroundings and then himself as he called out the heavyweight champion on his ‘b******t’.

Beaumont could be seen saying: “My mate is sleeping like Jon Jones would be after a bit of a dig with my mate Tom Aspinall.

“I don’t know a lot about that form of fighting but what I do know is a lot about b******t and when someone says ‘He’s got a big mouth, he p****s me off, he’s disrespecting me and I aren’t going to fight him’.

“To not want to fight someone who is p*****g you off, the only reason is because you know you can’t.

“Tom Aspinall ain’t no interim champion. He’s the f*****g man! So Jon, get off your bike, take the guy on and shut him up. The only reason you won’t do that is because you know that you f*****g can’t.”

Elevating matters further was the caption attached to the video in which the Leigh Leopards owner seemingly laid down a £1,000,000 wager for Jones if he could beat Englishman Aspinall.

The aforementioned video was shared with the caption: “It’s not that difficult ⁦@JonnyBones. You either fight ⁦@AspinallMMA ⁩ or shut up! Simple really your (sic) smart so why would you walk into a loss? I get it but you gotta live knowing you quacked it 🙈 Tom kicks your arse simple as I give you £1m if he doesn’t!”

Aspinall most recently fought Curtis Blaydes in Manchester back in July, a fight that all of the Leigh Leopards players and staff attended as they watched Aspinall knock out his opponent after just one minute in the Octagon.

Whether Beaumont’s call-out of Jones gains any traction is to be seen but it’s certainly one way to make the rugby league off-season more interesting. Last November, Beaumont joked that Aspinall could play in the forwards for Leigh Leopards.

It’s not that difficult ⁦@JonnyBones⁩ you either fight ⁦@AspinallMMA⁩ or shut up! Simple really your smart so why would you walk into a loss? I get it but you gotta live knowing you quacked it 🙈 Tom kicks your arse simple as I give you £1m if he doesn’t! pic.twitter.com/dXEkTvP5zw

— Derek John Beaumont (@derek_beaumont) November 19, 2024