Jones Ready To Keep Fighting, But Will Dana Retire Him?

As Jones said after his win at UFC 309, he has some negotiating to do with UFC brass. That hasn’t always worked out so well in the past.

Following a one-sided beatdown of an elderly Stipe Miocic (watch the highlights here), Jon Jones has declared he plans on sticking around and continuing to fight after all. But before we get to see “Bones” in the cage again, Jon will have to get past one opponent he hasn’t managed to beat thus far: UFC CEO Dana White.

White has spent the past few months endlessly promoting Jones as the unrivaled GOAT of MMA, so it may seem strange to imagine a situation where the big boss would be the one to put an end to his heavyweight champion’s career. But Dana has already shoved Jon off into the wilderness before, and leading into UFC 309 he paved the road to do it again.

After months of speculation that Jones would retire — fueled by numerous comments from Jones himself — Jones declared on Saturday night that he wasn’t ready to retire.

“As far as my future in the Octagon, I decided that maybe I will not retire,” Jones said immediately after his third round TKO of Miocic. “I have some conversations to have with Dana (White) and Hunter (Campbell) and we have some negotiating to do. And if everything goes right, maybe we’ll give you guys what you wanna see.”

What we wanna see is a Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall heavyweight title unification. But Jones has spent the last six months dismissing Aspinall as ‘just the next guy’ and nothing special. He wants to face light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira in a fight that would admittedly make a bigger splash and generate more fame and revenue for him. It’s also a much easier match-up, so that’s probably a bonus for Jones as well.

And hey, this is prize fighting. You can’t get too upset about a fighter angling for the biggest possible match-up, especially if it represents half the risk. But things change when you factor in the heavyweight title and GOAT talk. No one wants to see the best fighter in the world in matches that are more sizzle than steak. They want to see him against the greatest challenge available. That’s unquestionably Tom Aspinall, not Alex Pereira.

Jones seems to get that, and told the world at UFC 309 that the promotion would have to pay him well to make it happen. For his part, that was what Dana White expected to hear from Jones.

“If he wins, he’ll disappear for a while,” White told Jim Rome during fight week. “And then that competitive spirit will start bubbling up again, and then money will talk. And if he doesn’t decide to retire, he absolutely positively fights Aspinall … If Jon Jones wants to fight again after Saturday night, he will fight Tom Aspinall.”

On the plus side, White sounded prepared to let the money talk to make things happen. That’s a good change from where Jones and the UFC were in 2020 when he relinquished the light heavyweight title and ‘disappeared for a while.’ That wasn’t because he lacked competitive spirit. It was because the UFC refused to renegotiate his contract to move up to heavyweight.

At the time, White suggested it was because Jones wanted ‘Deontay Wilder money.’ At the time, “The Bronze Bomber” was coming off a $25 million payday for his second fight against Tyson Fury. Jones denied this and said the UFC refused to even discuss a pay raise for him to fight Francis Ngannou.

Jones would walk away from the sport for two years, and White would maintain that he was perfectly fine with Jones never fighting again if that’s how “Bones” wanted to play it. Now we’re headed into another round of negotiations between the two and it’s a real question mark on how things will play out.

One positive factor in all this: Jones’ last failed negotiation attempt came in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The UFC was struggling to keep events going, and who knew when they’d be able to hold an event with a gate again? They even refused to fight Conor McGregor during that time, so is it a big surprise that they refused to give Jones a raise?

When the world re-opened, the UFC was a lot more amenable to paying Jones properly for a heavyweight run. Will they be cool about opening the wallet back up to get Jones to unify the title against Aspinall? Sure, but how wide is the question. You’d certainly hope a deal can be reached, but if there’s one task White still takes with the utmost seriousness it’s keeping a tight lid on fighter pay.

‘Take it or leave it’ has never been a bluff from White, and it wouldn’t be surprising if Jones just disappears from the landscape like another UFC GOAT, Georges St-Pierre.