Richard Schaefer, JON JONES' advisor, made 'tremendous advances' in negotiating a deal that would allow the MMA legend to compete for the UFC Heavyweight title. This was his long-awaited return.
In an effort to win heavyweight gold and be a two-division champion, the former pound-for–pound king removed the 205lb belt.
Jon Jones has vacated the title of light-heavyweight champion
He quickly got involved in a bitter pay dispute. This exploded onto social media.
After 11 years of working with his management team, Jones decided to enlist the help of Schaefer, a veteran boxing promoter.
The Schaefer was able to mend the relationship and offer Jones a title shot at the UFC.
SunSport spoke with the former CEO of Golden Boy Promotions: "When Jon started to get involved, we had to, sort-of, repair the relationship between Jon and the UFC.
"And I had always had a great friendship with Dana White. He's a good friend of mine and Hunter Campbell. That was how I was able repair the relationship.
Jon understood that Twitter feuds and going back-and-forth on Twitter is not conducive to a fight. He also understood that.
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"He understood, and we achieved that.
"I made great progress in getting the UFC to allow Jon fight in his next fight to fight at the UFC heavyweight title.
"We initially targeted November, December."
Jones decided that he needed more time to build muscle and learn to carry the extra weight.
Schaefer said, "Jon is kind of like the guy behind [points at a photograph], Bernard Hopkins]. He's very organized in his preparations.
He felt that he needed to take a bit longer to gain the right amount of muscle mass.
He's a little over 260 now and wanted to gain 275 lbs.
"Not only do you gain weight, but also gain it in a smart and explosive way. He needed to take a bit longer.
"The UFC was again on board, and we were beginning to talk about a structure for that big heavyweight bout."
After Jones' arrest in Las Vegas last month, Jones is unlikely to fight for heavyweight gold or compete in the UFC again.
Jones was inducted into UFC Hall of Fame hours after being arrested by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. He was charged with misdemeanour battery domestic abuse and injuring/tampering in a vehicle.
Schaefer was shocked to learn that Jones had a new encounter with the law. He spoke to Jones three times during the week before his induction.
Schaefer stated that everything was going well. Everything was perfect when he arrived to Vegas.
"I believe he was great when you see the videos of the night of the hall -of-fame Induction.
He said, "So everything was going well.
"And then, when I woke up the next morning, I woke up to this news, and I was obviously shocked.
"Jon is one the most genuine, kindest people I've ever met." "So yeah, I was shocked."
Jones, widely believed to be the greatest mixed-martial artist of all time is set to appear before the Las Vegas Justice Court on Oct 26.
Schaefer also called for a halt to the execution of judgment until due process is completed
He stated, "And now, we just have to see how this entire thing will play out legally before really jumping to judgment."
"And I believe the UFC is adopting that same stance."
"I saw Dana [White] interview yesterday, and he agreed with me in that it is just up to us to see how this whole thing turns out."
"And then, we can make our views and we can do what we like - all we have to do is see."
"I cannot really talk about it, legally speaking, as you can see."
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