Jon Jones, 37, preferred to walk away from the sport rather than facing Tom Aspinall. At least, that’s the narrative many fans chose to believe after ‘Bones’ posted about finally hanging up his gloves. It was a surprise considering he fought just twice post his comeback in 2023. And perhaps the ducking Aspinall sketch created on social media got to him, and so Jones took to X and wrote, “I was retired last November…” Last November was the fight against Stipe Miocic, which Jones won via TKO.

Moreover, Jones also mentioned how Dana White and Co. tried to change his mind even after he announced his retirement, but that did not come to fruition. ‘Bones’ added, “I was told 1000 times to just reconsider and just give it more time. That’s the truth.” But after the recently concluded UFC 317, White attended the post-fight presser, which has become rare over the past few months, and shared his side of the story about the debacle with Jones.

First of all, the reporters told Dana White about the Olympic gold medalist wrestler, Gable Steveson, who’s been seen engaging in MMA training with Jon Jones and his coaches in Albuquerque. The UFC CEO was astonished to learn that and even took a slight dig at ‘Bones’ in response to the reporter’s question.

“Jon Jones is training? Holy s–t! That’s news to me. Wasn’t he on the reality show in Thailand or something?… I didn’t know Jon was training,” Dana White stated on the UFC 317 post-fight presser. But what about the promotion’s efforts to make Jones versus Aspinall happen? When asked about it, White said, “That’s not true… I don’t know [what to say]. I’m telling you the truth. Believe who you wanna believe.”

Before retiring, Jon Jones fought two times in two years, which has led many fans to be convinced that he’s retired for good now. But a fellow 2-time UFC champion has come out to claim that Jones may just surprise everyone and return to action in the future.

Israel Adesanya believes Jon Jones will be back!

Well, Jon Jones had retired in the past and came back to fight again. And Israel Adesanya claims this retirement could be like one of those in the past. ‘The Last Stylebender’ believes there’s a lot to gain for Jones if he decides to come back, since the discussion surrounding a fight against Tom Aspinall, which did not happen, caused quite a stir in the MMA world.

Insinuating that there’s more to Jon Jones’ retirement, Israel Adesanya told Ariel Helwani, “I think he’ll come back. I think he’ll come back. It’s the drama of it. … This is all just. What do they call it now, the kids call it? Rage baiting. It’s working. I don’t agree with the fact holding up the division. I’m like, Tom defended the belt. That’s a defense on his book. Let the division keep moving, and now it moves forward.”

“Now this whole thing comes out because [criminal charges stemming from an incident] in February or whatever. F—ing that’s why he retired. I think he’ll go through this and then, again, he’ll come back,” Adesanya added. “I think he’ll fight Tom. It’s too much money. They offered him what, $20-$30 million? Yeah, I think he’ll come back. It’ll even be bigger by the time he comes back because Tom would have had like two fights or three fights and then built up his own legacy as well.”