Turns out, the retirement of Jon Jones was a two-week one after all.
A new update to the UFC's Anti-Doping website shows that Jones' name has been returned. This means Jones has recently been tested, which would mark his third testing session for 2025.
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This brings another degree of truth to marks Jones has previously made about coming back to the promotion, with an aim to compete on the UFC's planned card for the White House on July 4, 2026.
Jon Jones Returns To UFC Anti-Doping Website With New Testing Sample
Jones has been in a year-plus-long saga with the UFC and current heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall.
Jones, the former champion, has not fought since UFC 309, which saw him retain against Stipe Miocic. That fight had been scheduled for UFC 295 until Jones tore his pec.
The UFC elected to not strip Jones and instead make an interim heavyweight title while being persistent in holding Jones vs. Miocic. Aspinall won the interim title at UFC 295 and then retained it at UFC 304.
A drawn-out negotiations process saw UFC CEO and President Dana White believing a Jones-Aspinall showdown was close to official. Jones; however, elected to retire in mid-June, feeling he had accomplished everything he could in MMA. Conveniently, this came around the same time new charges against Jones were filed for an incident involving a car accident that took place in New Mexico this past February.
Aspinall was named champion at the UFC Baku post-fight press conference. He is scheduled to make his first undisputed title defense against Ciryl Gane at UFC 321.
Since the confirmation of plans for the UFC to hold a pay-per-view on the White House lawn as part of the United States' Semiquincentennial, a number of fighters have volunteered to participate.
In addition to Jones, Conor McGregor has expressed interest in ending his active hiatus to compete on the card. Like Jones, McGregor returned to the testing pool last week.
White, however, was noncommittal to the idea of bringing Jones out to compete on the White House card.
