Jon Jones, while talking to the media at UFC 306, hinted at retiring following his UFC 309 headliner against Stipe Miocic. The former UFC light heavyweight champion debuted for the promotion in 2011 and has amassed the most title fight wins (12) so far, naturally making his retirement a big deal among fans.
After being the most dominant UFC light heavyweight ever, Jones moved up to heavyweight. In March 2023, he beat Ciryl Gane in his heavyweight debut to capture the division's undisputed championship. However, he has yet to defend the title and despite Tom Aspinall finishing all top contenders, former champ Miocic is getting the title shot.
Although Jones has mentioned retirement several times at this point, Chael Sonnen simply doesn't buy it...
Chael Sonnen Lists Why Jon Jones Isn't Serious About Retiring After Stipe Miocic Fight
Sonnen opened up on the recently confirmed matchup between Jones and Miocic for the UFC heavyweight championship on his YouTube channel. He acknowledged that MMA fans are now more excited to see "Bones" being tested by Aspinall who even defended his interim UFC heavyweight belt against Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304.
"The American Gangster" believes that Jones' retirement is not the UFC legend's idea at all. Somebody from the media or the internet randomly questioned his retirement and since then, he's agreed to it a couple of times.
In Sonnen's view, Jones teasing retirement after fighting Miocic is a clever yet effective marketing idea. Over the years, the light heavyweight GOAT has amassed millions of fans who would tune in to watch him fight for potentially the last time without a second thought.
I'm watching this. Oh, Jon has grabbed on to that retirement idea. He did not mean it, it was completely insincere, it wasn't even his idea. Somebody else said it, he heard it, thought it might be good to go with. And a couple of different reasons guys that are not going to retire say that they're going to retire. A couple. One could be, he heard somebody else say it thought it might be good marketing. He never comes out and does anything to try for marketing and he went for it. Another one is just the same reason you did things like that when you were a child. So that somebody else would tell, oh no, hey, whoa, we want you, you're great.
Sonnen, Jones' former rival, is optimistic that we'll see him in the Octagon against Aspinall before he retires. He stated that "Bones" adding "most likely" to his latest statement about retirement gave it all away. The undisputed heavyweight champ is either selling his upcoming fight or wanting the UFC to stop him from retiring through obvious incentives.