How Jon Jones destroyed his legacy in pathetic end to UFC saga
This is how one of the 'great' fighting careers ends: at 2am in Azerbaijan, 11 minutes into a press conference, with UFC president Dana White only making the revelation when prompted by a journalist. Jon Jones is gone. Is it too strong to say 'good riddance'?
Some might never back down from arguing that the American is the most fearsome fighter to have ever walked the planet. Jones is, after all, a former two-time light-heavyweight champion, was never beaten outside of an unfortunate disqualification, and boasts a ridiculous resume of wins over multiple greats: Daniel Cormier (twice), 'Shogun' Rua, 'Rampage' Jackson, Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans, Vitor Belfort, Chael Sonnen, and Stipe Miocic – to name just some.
Now 37, Jones became the youngest-ever UFC champion by collecting gold aged 23. Later, in the final stanza of a storied career, he claimed two-weight champion status, adding the heavyweight belt to his crammed cabinet in 2023.
What a shame, then, that Jones actively undermined all of his achievements at every possible opportunity.
We can and will start with the failed drug tests. There are four: three for performance-enhancing substances (PEDs), one for a recreational drug. The latter incident on that list was the first chronologically, as 'Bones' tested positive for cocaine in 2014; disappointing, yes, but not a mistake that impacted his first win over Cormier. The slew of ensuing indiscretions, however, tainted Jones's fighting legacy permanently.
His first failed test relating to PEDs, in 2016, thwarted his rematch with Cormier, the planned main event of the historic UFC 200. And when Jones finally returned from the resulting one-year ban, knocking out Cormier, his desired redemption was undone by another failed drug test. Jones's victory was overturned, and he was stripped of the 205lb title – not for the first time, but more on that later.
Jones's final failed drug test occurred in 2018, yet the UFC remarkably bent over backwards for their disgraced star; the promotion moved Jones's long-awaited rematch with Alexander Gustafsson – and its entire undercard – from Las Vegas to Los Angeles so Jones could be licensed to fight. Jones went on to stop Gustafsson, regaining the light-heavyweight belt in the process.
With that, he silenced detractors who believed that Gustafsson had won their first clash in 2013, yet further controversial scorecards were floating in Jones's future. His penultimate fight at 205lb saw him arguably get lucky as he outpointed Thiago Santos, while there is little argument to be made around his final bout in the division; in the eyes of everyone but three judges who had a bad night at work, Dominick Reyes beat Jones in February 2020, on the cusp of Covid's crippling diffusion around the globe.
Jones soon gave up the 205lb title to finally move up to heavyweight, a venture he had vowed to embark upon for years – and one that would take three years to come to fruition, coincidentally as the most frightening heavyweight of all time, Francis Ngannou, wrecked the division. Jones's heavyweight debut finally took place in March 2023, conveniently following Ngannou's UFC exit by two months, but there's more we need to discuss before we get to that chapter of this story.
Because while Jones's light-heavyweight era ended with him giving up the belt, and while his heavyweight stint ended in the same way, he was previously stripped of a UFC title three times: before and after the Cormier rematch, due to those failed drug tests; and in 2015, due to a major legal matter.
In fact, the matter in question admittedly renders his status as a champion largely irrelevant. Jones was charged with fleeing the scene of a hit and run, in which he injured a pregnant woman. Jones's title was taken, he was suspended by the UFC, and the courts sentenced him to 18 months' supervised probation.
In another notable episode, in 2021, Jones was charged with domestic battery and tampering with a police vehicle, after his fiancee was found bloodied in a hotel room shared by the pair, with the fighter's youngest daughter having called the authorities. Jones allegedly attempted to flee the scene, before headbutting a police car once he was detained. It must be stressed that the domestic-battery charge was dropped, while Jones pleaded No Contest to tampering with a police vehicle and accepted a fine and an anger-management order.
Jones denied the domestic-battery charge, but in the aftermath, he vowed to give up alcohol, saying: 'I have way too much trauma to consume alcohol, my brain simply can't handle it anymore. I will leave alcohol in my past forever.' Jones has been filmed drinking alcohol since, most recently on the week of his retirement.
Other legal issues include: a 2012 charge for driving under the influence (DWI), to which Jones pleaded guilty; a 2019 battery charge, to which Jones pleaded No Contest after being accused of choking a waitress; a combined 2020 charge of aggravated DWI, negligent use of a firearm, possession of an open container, and driving with no proof of insurance – with Jones pleading guilty to the DWI charge as part of a plea deal, which saw the other charges dropped; and a 2024 incident in which a drug-testing agent accused the 37-year-old of assaulting and threatening to kill her, with Jones pleading not guilty but accepting another anger-management order.
It is also worth noting that Jones secured a Nike sponsorship in 2012, an unprecedented example of business success for an MMA fighter at the time, before being dropped by the sports-clothing brand in 2015 after his hit-and-run.
Considering all of the above, his latest saga feels rather inconsequential, yet it has dominated conversations among the MMA fanbase for almost two years.
Throughout that period, which ended this week, Jones refused to fight Tom Aspinall, despite the Briton holding the interim heavyweight belt. To be exact, Aspinall held his version of the title for 74 per cent of Jones's reign as 'undisputed' champion.
When Jones sustained an injury in late 2023, six months after winning the regular title, his first planned defence was postponed, ultimately by a year. Within weeks of Jones's injury, Aspinall extended his remarkable stoppage-win streak to collect the interim strap, while he extended that streak further to retain his belt in July 2024. Defending an interim title in the UFC is an extremely rare move, yet Aspinall did it gladly and with unequivocal success.
So, after Jones returned in November 2024 to stop a 42-year-old, inactive and hurt Miocic, a fight between the American and Aspinall, 32, was the natural next move. Yet Jones not only refused to face Aspinall, he also refused to retire until this week, meaning a significant portion of Aspinall's prime was wasted waiting for a fight that he had earned.
White has now said Jones actually did accept the fight, after MMA insider Ariel Helwani reported that the UFC offered Bones the eye-watering sum he sought, only for Jones to renege. Many fans and pundits saw Jones's behaviour over the past two years as exactly what they had come to expect from him: selfish and ignoble.
With that in mind – with all of the above in mind – Jones deserved for his retirement to be announced offhandedly, in Baku, at 2am, midway through a press conference entirely unrelated to him. The idea that Jones deserved a grander send-off, as an end to a glorious career, is misguided. Because the idea that his career was glorious is misguided, too.
Jones did not destroy his legacy by avoiding Aspinall; he destroyed his legacy every single step of the way.
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