Dana White says Jon Jones lying about UFC retirement timeline: 'Believe who you want'

USA Today

2 days ago

There are three sides to MMA's latest big divorce: Jon Jones' side, the UFC's side and the truth.
LAS VEGAS – There are three sides to MMA's latest big divorce: Jon Jones' side, the UFC's side and the truth.
And though neither has built a reputation on being a beacon of the latter, both Jones and UFC CEO Dana White say the other is lying about Jones' recent decision to retire and vacate the heavyweight title.
In a series of social media posts late this past week, Jones inferred he told the UFC he was done fighting soon after he beat Stipe Miocic in November 2024, and that he never intended to return to fight interim champion Tom Aspinall. That goes contrary to White's claims that the fight was booked and repeated assurances that it would happen.
White, after UFC 317 on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena, was blunt about Jones' take on what went down and said he certainly had not been retired for months prior to White's announcement a week ago.
"That's not true," White told MMA Junkie and other reporters after the event. "I'm telling you the truth. Believe who you want to believe."
In a tweet storm, some of which he deleted, Jones implied the UFC should not have been surprised by his decision.
"I was told 1000 times to just reconsider and just give it more time. That's the truth," Jones posted. "If the fight was done, trust me, I would be fighting. Did we start negotiating at one point yes, but if I was never done. My job at the time was to sit back and be quiet about it and that's exactly what I did. I was enjoying my life that should've been obvious to you guys."
There's also the part in which Jones is in some major legal trouble … again. His attorney says his oft-embattled and oft-legally embroiled client has been falsely accused and is being targeted by police. There is a criminal summons accusing Jones of leaving the scene of an accident in February. He is scheduled for a bond arraignment July 24.
The details of the criminal complaint include accusations that Jones left the scene of a crash with a half-naked and intoxicated woman in the car, and when reached by phone, a man thought to be Jones made "allusions to violence" to multiple police officials.
After the crash, according to the police complaint, Jones called the woman's phone more than a dozen times and also sent text messages. The woman said she drank at Jones' house and took mushrooms there, then next recalled being in a car crash after Jones allegedly was driving.
He had a DWI conviction in 2012. In 2015, he failed a drug test for cocaine – but a loophole kept him from being suspended for it, and he passed a second test. Later that year, Jones was arrested for a felony hit-and-run involving a pregnant woman. He pled guilty to leaving the scene of an accident. He had another DWI in 2020 that came with gun charges, later dropped in a plea deal, in the early days of the COVID pandemic.
The first time Jones was stripped of a title was for his hit-and-run while he was light heavyweight champion. The second was for his first doping violation the following year. In a rematch win over Daniel Cormier in 2017, he failed a drug test for steroids in California and was suspended again – and stripped of a title again.
In 2019, he pled no contest to charges of battery against a strip club waitress. In 2021, several weeks after a domestic violence arrest in Las Vegas the night after he went into the UFC Hall of Fame, his longtime team at JacksonWink MMA in Albuquerque gave him the boot and no longer wanted to be associated with him. He later said he was done with alcohol for good. He was sentenced to anger management classes in 2024 after an alleged altercation with a drug sample collection agent.