On Saturday, it was officially announced by Dana White that Jon Jones has retired from the UFC, leaving his heavyweight title behind.
After several months of silence, the UFC heavyweight title saga between Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall has finally come to an end, just not in the way many fans hoped for.
Following UFC Baku this past Saturday, UFC boss Dana White announced that Jones has officially retired from the UFC, relinquishing his heavyweight title, making Aspinall the undisputed champion.
Having missed out on one of the biggest heavyweight fights in the history of the sport, fans scorched Jones following his announcement, continuing to call him a duck.
Jon Jones’ retirement results in ultra-rare occurrence in the UFC
Despite being widely regarded as the greatest UFC fighter of all time, it is undeniable that ‘Bones’ has tarnished his legacy during the back-end of his career.
However, he will leave the sport with several records intact and his record of becoming the youngest champion in UFC history may never be broken.
With the 37-year-old having officially hung up his gloves leaving his title behind, it has resulted in an extremely rare occurrence in the promotion.
For the first time since 2004, when there were only four active divisions, there are currently no American male champions in the UFC with Kayla Harrison being the only current champion to represent the United States.
At one point in time, America was by far the most dominant region in MMA however over the past few years, that has completely changed as Russian athletes have begun to dominate the sport.
Dana White regrets one thing during heavyweight saga
For several months now, it has become more clear that ‘Bones’ wouldn’t return and Aspinall even claimed during the beginning of the saga that he would retire Jones without even fighting him.
After months of the heavyweight division being held up, Dana White has admitted that he regrets giving Jones so much time to decide whether he wanted to fight the Brit or not, taking blame for holding up Aspinall’s career.
Fortunately, though, Aspinall has implored that he will reignite activity into the division, vowing to be an active champion.