Jon Jones has now officially confirmed that his retirement from the sport is already over as he’s now back on-board due to his desire to fight on the one-of-a-kind UFC: White House event that’s in the works for 2026.
“I was retired,” Jones told ESPN on the red carpet at the 2025 ESPY Awards. “I felt like I was at a place where I’ve done it all in the MMA space. I felt like there wasn’t too many more challenges for me and I just wanted to do something more than championships and money and Donald Trump mentioned that he wanted to have a fight at the White House garden.
“That just seems like such a huge opportunity. I’m a very proud American. I have a lot of close friends who are in the military and this is my act; I can’t call it service but to be able to entertain the country and the world at this level at the White House, it means the world to me. So, I’m back.”
In a separate interview, Jones also indicated that a showdown with newly crowned heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall is now a real possibility.
“I would want to take on whoever’s holding the belt at the end of the year,” Jones told ‘Joy Of Everything’. “As of right now, the champion is Tom Aspinall, but we’ll see who’s the champion at the end of the year.
“I feel like it would only be fitting to have an American guy fight for the championship that night.”
Jones u-turn on retiring once again puts the top-end of the UFC’s heavyweight ranks in an awkward spot again as Jones vs Aspinall is the fight everyone wanted, but at the same time everyone was already sick and tired of waiting for it to happen and wants to get the division moving again.
That being said, when asked about the White House show last weekend, White admitted that his ‘dream fight’ for the event was still the Jones vs. Aspinall showdown.
As things stand the most likely plan had been for Aspinall to go up against current No.1 contender Ciryl Gane next in his first title defense later this year, but nothing’s official on that front yet.
Aspinall has already stated that after his period of inactivity he’s eager to fight twice this year, but you do wonder if he beats Gane whether the UFC would then prefer to keep him on ice until the White House event next summer to ensure they have the fight they want to front one of the highest profile events in the company’s history.
On the other hand, if Gane was to win it would throw a major spanner in the works given that Jones already easily beat the French fighter in just a couple of minutes to win the title a couple of years, making it a match-up that no-one is eager to run back.
So it’ll be interesting to see how the UFC’s opts to navigate this situation, but for now Jones appears to have gone from being completely indifferent about the possibility of fighting again, to suddenly seeing the White House event as a defining moment in his decorated career.
“I think it’s exciting,” Jones said. “Very exciting. I can’t promise anything but I have a very strong feeling that I’ll be on that card.
“I think it’s going to be incredibly iconic. It’s going to be historic. In my opinion, it will be just as big as the Thrilla in Manilla, Rumble in the Jungle, it’s up there with that. It could be bigger than that.”
