Dana White shot down talk of Jon Jones fighting at next year’s White House event at the weekend by describing his odds of being on it as “a billion-to-one,” but it seems that hasn’t deterred the former heavyweight champion.

“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. 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.”

It’s a bizarre flipping of the script really when you consider that just a few months ago White was the one appearing to be desperate for Jones to fight again, while the star himself seemed entirely indifferent to the idea and eventually opted to give up the title and retire rather than face Tom Aspinall.

However, then President Trump dropped the unexpected news about the White House card next year, and suddenly just two weeks after hanging up his gloves Jones was suddenly back in the drug-testing pool and determined to fight at the event regardless of who he had to fight.

However, it seems that by that stage White had clearly had enough of Jones antics and has repeatedly said in the weeks since that he can’t trust the fighter enough to have him on such an important event.

So, not for the first time in his career it seems like Jones has managed to become the architect of his own demise, but he’s always managed to get back on top in the end, and so it would appears he’s hoping that’s going to be the case this time around as well.