It took nine and a half minutes for Dana White to bring up Jon Jones’ decision to retire at the UFC Baku post-fight press conference, and there wasn’t a whole lot of follow-up questions asked by the Azerbaijani media about the subject. Fortunately, members of the MMA media caught up to White in New York City for the Canelo vs. Crawford launch presser to probe the UFC CEO on the situation.
White didn’t have many more answers to give, but he did confirm that a fight between Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall had been verbally agreed to for November 2025 at Madison Square Garden.
“The fight was done. We had the fight done a long time ago,” White said during a media scrum (video via The Mac Life). “So why he decided not to fight, you guys will have to ask him that.”
“These are all questions you gotta ask him,” he said of Jones’ reasons for retiring. “We had the fight done. You saw me talking about it very confidently that this fight was gonna happen. And then he changed his mind.”
“So he called us and just started saying, ‘You know what? I think I’m done. I wanna retire and it’s been a great run, I appreciate everything,’ and that was it. He was absolutely positively sure that he wanted to retire. And we said, ‘Why don’ you sleep on it and when you wake up in the morning, if that’s how you still feel….”
News broke hours after Jones’ retirement announcement that the former heavyweight champ was facing new criminal charges over a hit-and-run situation from February — the details of which are strange and disturbing. Leaving the scene of an accident is just a misdemeanor, but the ugly truths revealed by the case could seriously impact his family life.
White didn’t know about the latest criminal charges when he spoke to Jones.
Today, I’m officially announcing my retirement from the UFC. This decision comes after a lot of reflection, and I want to take a moment to express my deepest gratitude for the journey I’ve experienced over the years.
From the first time I stepped into the Octagon, my goal was to…
— Jonny Meat (@JonnyBones) June 22, 2025
“When I saw it today, I said, ‘Oh, everybody’s gonna think this is why he retired,’” he said. “Maybe that is why he retired. Who the hell knows, man?”
As for the claims that Jones retired to avoid fighting Aspinall?
“I said it a million times and I’ll say it again,” White said. “He’s never ducked anybody other than that one goofy time with the Chael Sonnen thing. He’s never never ducked anybody. The reality is, whatever changed his mind with this fight, I don’t know. You’d have to ask him that. But he’s 38 years old, and I don’t know.”
“You never know what Jon Jones is dealing with, and then you wake up the next day [and see the news],” White concluded. “So who knows? I mean, I don’t know everything that went into this decision. It’s something you guys are gonna have to ask him if you ever see him again.”
“All I know is that he made it very clear that he wanted to retire, and I don’t disagree with him.”
