Jon Jones still isn’t saying he’s done.
The former two-division champion hasn’t fought since beating Stipe Miocic in November 2024, choosing retirement over a unification bout with Tom Aspinall, who was then promoted to undisputed heavyweight champion. Jones re-entered the drug-testing pool when the UFC announced its White House card, only for Dana White to insist he was never in consideration. That left Jones frustrated enough to float getting out of his UFC deal.
Now he’s coaching Gable Steveson, and his tone has softened. Speaking with Ring Magazine, Jones made clear he hasn’t shut anything down.
When it comes to me actually fighting anyone, I just keep the door open. I’m still in the UFC’s drug testing pool. I get drug tested, blood tested all the time. I’m living vicariously through my buddy Gable Steveson right now.
Steveson smashed Elisha Ellison in his UFC debut at UFC 329 with Jones in his corner. For now, that’s scratching the itch.
I’m getting my itch. I feel like I’m giving fans their itch, but I’m just doing it with a younger generation fighter, and I feel like that’s what life is all about. … Honestly, it’s fulfilling – not as fulfilling as being in the ring or the octagon, but it is scratching that itch. I can genuinely say I’m happy right now.
The door stays cracked, though.
The door is open. Like I said, I’m still in that drug-testing pool. I’m just allowing time to fly by by focusing on somebody else. If I get that calling from maybe the higher powers, then I’m going to have to answer that call.
Jones says the UFC owes him offers, and they haven’t come.
As long as I’m in the drug-testing pool, the UFC are contractually obligated to offer me a few fights a year. I haven’t heard anything from them in a while. I just take it as it comes.
Whatever tension existed with White appears to have cooled.
It was good to see Dana the other day. We laughed. We took a photo together.
Jones also shot down the idea of a ring return against Oleksandr Usyk after the champion’s advisor floated him as an option.
