Will Jon Jones fight at the White House?
The former two-division UFC Champion and arguably the greatest fighter of all time says it’s not his decision to make after retiring from the sport earlier this summer.
Weeks after relinquishing his heavyweight title to interim champion Tom Aspinall, the 38-year-old Jones teased he was coming out of retirement by submitting a drug test, which he’d need to be eligible to fight again.
Jones has had his eyes on returning at the UFC’s White House event on July 4, 2026, in honor of the USA’s 250th birthday.
However, Dana White cast doubt on that happening when the UFC CEO gave ‘billion to one’ odds to Jones potentially being on that card.
The odds aren’t great, but Jones is still taking them.
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Jon Jones: ‘I like my chances’ fighting at White House
Despite his previous lack of interest in unifying the title against Aspinall, Jones said after he retired that he’d fight whoever held the heavyweight belt next summer.
There’s no guarantee from White as of now, but Jones remains optimistic he’ll fight on the White House lawn.
“Despite the odds, I’m still training and optimistic about the possibility of being part of the White House event,” Jones wrote on X.
“At the end of the day, Dana is the boss and it’s his call whether I compete that night or not,” Jones continued.
“I do know Dana was really excited about the fight, and the door hasn’t been completely closed. That’s all a guy like me really needs. It sounds like another awesome goal to be inspired by. Sometimes in life, we’re not going to reach everything we set out to do and that’s okay.
“But I like my chances… after all, one in a billion is exactly what it took to end up as Jon ‘Bones’ Jones in the first place,” the legendary champion added.
Jon Jones reportedly turned $30M to fight Tom Aspinall
The UFC brass might not have been too happy with Jones after he opted out of fighting the interim champion, Tom Aspinall.
Aspinall was the interim champion for nearly 600 days during Jones’ heavyweight title reign and ‘Bones’ decided to fight Stipe Miocic instead of unifying the titles.
Jones could have retired after his final title defense against Miocic in November, however, Jones held out until June to do so after negotiations with the UFC.
MMA journalist Ariel Helwani reported on Impaulsive that Jones was offered $30M to fight Aspinall, agreed to take the deal, and days later, backed out.