The dust is beginning to settle on Jon Jones’ shock retirement from the UFC a few weeks ago.
After a huge heavyweight saga that lasted several months, UFC boss Dana White revealed a few weeks ago that Jon Jones has officially retired from the UFC.
And with that, former interim UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall was upgraded to the undisputed champion of the division, after missing out on a fight against ‘Bones’.
Although Jones’ retirement came as a shock because of the fact that it was announced following the UFC’s first event in Baku, it seemed almost inevitable following the entire saga.
Daniel Cormier believes the UFC were frustrated with Jon Jones
Throughout his career, Jones’ biggest ever rival was Daniel Cormier and the two were involved in one of the biggest rivalries in the sport’s history.
Initially, Cormier was critical of Jones’ retirement, claiming that he was a ‘quitter’ because of the fact that he didn’t fight the Brit.
Despite that, he quickly changed his tune and surprisingly gave his biggest ever rival some credit for what was an incredible career.
However, now a few weeks removed from the 37-year-old’s retirement, Cormier has claimed that the UFC must’ve been frustrated with him because of how fast they removed him from the roster.
“It’s so crazy too because, they actually took Jon Jones off the roster, that was fast! Normally you let them linger. They must just be frustrated, they must’ve been super frustrated because how often is someone still sitting on the roster after they say, ‘I’m done.'” Cormier said on the Pound-for-Pound Podcast.
“I think there’s some frustration. Well they announced that Jon was retiring in Baku, just at a post fight press conference and it wasn’t even the first thing that came out of Dana’s mouth… There might be some frustration there.”
Dana White denies Jones’ claim that he retired in 2024
After Jones’ official retirement, he came out with a storm of posts on social media, claiming that he told the UFC about his retirement in 2024.
However, at the UFC 317 post-fight press conference, Dana White denied Jones’ claim, insisting ‘Not true’.