Former UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones has maintained since mid-May that the UFC has known about his retirement plans for months.
On the heels of his official retirement, Jones doubled down in a pair of posts on social media. As the former champ revealed to fans, he told the promotion after his win over Stipe Miocic in November that he was retiring.
In a follow-up, Jones then informed fans that the UFC urged him to reconsider retirement, giving him time to think things over while keeping fans in the dark.
Jones was quick to delete the pair of posts; however, MMAUncensored had already captured a screenshot.
First, the former pound-for-pound king posted:
“I was retired last November and I’ve been working nonstop. I’m actually working harder now that I’m not fighting, but it’s so much fun. No more sweating, just using my personality and giving fans all the love that I can. Sounds like a pretty good gig.”
He then followed it up, adding:
“I was told 1000 times to just reconsider and just give it more time. That’s the truth.”
As previously mentioned, this isn’t the first time that we’ve seen Jones indicate that the UFC’s known his plans all along.
Looking Back At Jones’ Previous Post About Retirement
Back in mid-May, Jon Jones was going back-and-forth with fans and trolls on social media.
The impromptu Q&A naturally led to questions about a potential fight with Tom Aspinall, which subsequently led to Jones revealing that he informed the UFC of his plans months prior.
As he indicated at the time, the UFC simply hadn’t clued fans in, seemingly out of hope that he would reconsider.
In a May 19 post, Jones wrote:
“I told the Ufc my plans a long time ago. I have no clue why they haven’t shared them with you guys yet.”
The post shifted the way many, including Ariel Helwani, began to feel about the situation. Less than two weeks later, on the May 28 installment of The Ariel Helwani Show, Helwani took aim at the UFC.
As he explained, if Jones made the UFC aware of his plans to retire at any point over the past few months, the logjam at heavyweight was no longer on him, but instead, the UFC.
Jon Jones Claps Back at Sean Strickland
Along with doubling down on his claims that he told the UFC of his retirement plans last year, Jon Jones also clapped back at Sean Strickland on Friday.
Although he didn’t mention the outspoken and often-times controversial middleweight by name, his message was clear.
The day prior, Strickland took an unprovoked shot at Jones on social media, writing on X:
“Its so wild no one has ever said ‘Jon Jones why don’t you go to rehab’ lmao”
In response to that post, and another, in which Strickland called him a “POS” Jones wrote:
“He kicks a fighter who’s in therapy like his own trauma isn’t dangling by a thread every podcast. Make it make sense.”
So far, Strickland has yet to clap back, however, given that Strickland has openly criticized Jones in the past, this likely isn’t the last we’ll hear of this beef.
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