UFC 282-soon.
Jon Jones will not be returning to UFC in 2022.
That’s according to promotion president Dana White, who recently extinguished the last dying flame of a potential Stipe Miocic fight — in the works for over five years — with news that “Bones” would not be available until 2023.
“I’m hoping that we get him early next year or in the spring,” White told The Mac Life.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.
Jones, now 35, has not competed in well over two years and hastily surrendered his 205-pound strap back in summer 2020. Since then, “Bones” has continued to tease a jump to heavyweight but has yet to commit to an exact date or opponent.
“My goal, my dream is to have my first heavyweight title fight look like my first light heavyweight title fight,” Jones recently wrote on Twitter. “Pure domination.”
More like pure speculation, based on how many times he’s cried wolf.
“Talk about a guy full of shit,” former opponent, Dominick Reyes, told Middle Easy. “He’s a fucking weirdo, man. Like, okay, Jon, either retire or fight again. You could have that real conversation and either become somebody like a former greatest of all time and have that clout and walk around as that. But your career is over and you’re just gonna be this guy on the sidelines talking shit about everybody all the time. People are getting tired of you. I feel like everything he’s doing now and he’s done since our fight has tarnished his legacy.”
As of this writing, Jones has yet to respond to White (or Reyes).