Jon Jones hit back at the UFC after Dana White claimed there was absolutely no chance of ‘Bones’ being listed as a White House candidate.
The card, now officially called Freedom Fights 250 (after the 250th anniversary of America’s birth), was unveiled at UFC 326…and it looks like it’ll be totally fine. Unless you’re expecting the worst card of all time, it’s probably one that someone in particular has suggested more than once in the last few months.
The main event sees Ilia Topuria unify the lightweight title against interim champion Justin Gaethje, while Alex Pereira battles Ciryl Gane for the interim heavyweight title in the co-main event. There is a lot of disappointment that Ferreira is not fighting Jones, who has been campaigning for a fight at the White House for months. According to White, that matchup was never seriously considered.
“Like I’ve said a hundred thousand times, I never once thought about Jon Jones fighting in the White House,” White said during his UFC 326 post-fight press conference. “I filmed some guy with meta glasses talking about his butt. His hip is so bad. And I don’t know if you’ve seen a flag football game where he can barely run. Jon Jones retired because of his hip. He has arthritis in his hip. Apparently the doctors say he needs to have hip replacement surgery.”
“I forgot that, in addition to all the other reasons why I wouldn’t do it.” White continued. “The Jon Jones thing is bullshit. I’m not saying they haven’t talked to Jon Jones and Jon Jones wasn’t interested in the fight. What’s even crazier is that Jon Jones came out and said, ‘I’m negotiating right now for a White House fight, an hour after I already texted his lawyer, ‘It’s never going to happen.'”
When asked if it was fair to say Jon Jones has retired, White responded, “It’s very fair.”
That didn’t sit well with Jones, who used X (formerly Twitter) to dump and delete numerous tweets.
“So this whole negotiation was complete bullshit. Is that what you want me to publicly agree to?” Jones wrote. “That makes sense. If I had to publicly admit that our deal was a lie, there’s a problem. I’d be the one to fall, of course. If I prove him wrong, would I be wrong? Or would the bigger man remain silent?”
“I was released from the UFC?!” I read it again.
*Has Jon Jones been released from UFC? Considering his promoter has said he is retired, it’s an interesting question to ask in court, allowing Jones to go out on the free market and earn the $30 million-plus he reportedly nearly earned from the stripped-down Tom Aspinall fight. Maybe for a fight with Francis Ngannou on Netflix?
One thing is certain: Jones disagrees with White’s assessment of how the White House’s reservation failure played out. According to White, Jon was never featured on the card. But in the meantime, while calling Jones’ teasing a “bull–t,” he admitted that the UFC was indeed “talking” to Jones, White finally told Jones’ lawyer that he would “never” be on the card. Now Jones wants to know if the UFC was negotiating in bad faith the whole time. I’d say it’s a legitimate question.
Has there ever been another promoter in the history of combat sports who didn’t want their biggest star to fight for them? First Ronda Rousey, now Jon Jones. We’ll see if the UFC can get Conor McGregor back into the cage like “Notorious” and foaming at the mouth. We become suspicious, which makes us ask the question: What on earth is going on?