Jake Hager explains what he was actually told about a potential bout against Jon Jones.
Recently, Jon 'Bones' Jones and AEW Superstar Jake Hager got into a back-and-forth on Twitter when Jones revealed that he was soon going to be participating in a Fury Grappling event against "Former WWE World Champion, Jack Swagger."
Hager took exception to Jones referencing his old place of employment and his former name and fired back at him. Now, Hager explains the backstory of this potential crossover fight.
Speaking to Renee Paquette and Anthony Smith on a special Throwing Down w/ Renee & Miesha, Hager says he was informed by Josh Rafferty of this fight being a possibility, however, nothing has been made official.
"I was at dinner one night and just got the phone call from my head coach, Josh Rafferty, and he's like, 'Hey, what's up, man? I got a great situation for you. If you'd like you should just say yes. Before I even tell you what it is. I'm like, 'Alright.' I love Josh. He's the man. I'm like, 'Yes.' Then, he tells me I'm like, 'Okay, yes, we'll make it happen.' So as far as I know, We're waiting from then on to just do the negotiation, and finalize everything and [Jon Jones] jumped the gun a little bit, made that Twitter announcement, we hadn't had anything signed. I know my response was a little bit harsh but you know, you got to get get my name right, You gotta get my company right, Because, if, you want to work with me, and everybody does—"
Furthermore, Hager would say that because of how AEW operates he has been allowed to grow his MMA career. Hager credited both Tony Khan and Chris Jericho for seeing the cross-promotional potential that his MMA career could have as a benefit to AEW.
"I think it really is a testament to AEW, to how Tony runs things, and he told me from the beginning that he wanted to make my MMA career, you know, he wanted to help that out as much as possible. He saw the value in it like I did, when I joined the company. That was one of the main reasons why Jericho wanted me, that was one of the main reasons Tony wanted me is because I could do both and he saw the value in both industries exploding and the ability to cross-promote. So really, I'm on the road like three days, and then I have Thursday through Tuesday to train so I kind of just moved my rest days. Those travel days and then the TV days, I get home — I gotta get good sleep Wednesday night. I can't be out parting, which is a great thing. It helps me live better. [As for] John Jones, When Catalina (Jake's wife) read his tweets, she goes, 'I didn't know they could tweet from prison.'"
Fightful will continue to monitor this story and report more updates as they're made available.
Hager can be seen weekly on AEW programming and most recently, feuded with MMA stars, American Top Team, defeating them with the other members of Inner Circle, in a Minneapolis Street Fight at AEW Full Gear.
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