UFC CEO Dana White didn’t hold back when addressing the chances of Jon Jones fighting at the White House and, as expected, Jones has responded.
Soon after retiring and vacating his UFC heavyweight title, Jones became very vocal publicly about wanting to walk back his retirement for a championship fight at the proposed UFC event at the White House next July 4 for the 250th anniversary of U.S. Independence. When asked about Jones’ interest in fighting at the White House event, White said he didn’t “trust” Jones enough to book him for such an important event, even putting the odds at “a billion to one” he would return.
Despite his track record and White’s comments, Jones remains hopeful of competing next year.
“Despite the odds, I’m still training and optimistic about the possibility of being part of the White House event,” Jones wrote on X. “At the end of the day, Dana is the boss, and it’s his call whether I compete that night or not. I do know Dana was really excited about the fight, and the door hasn’t been completely closed. That’s all a guy like me really needs. It sounds like another awesome goal to be inspired by. Sometimes in life, we’re not going to reach everything we set out to do and that’s okay. But I like my chances… after all, one in a billion is exactly what it took to end up as Jon ‘Bones’ Jones in the first place.
Jones, 38, was expected to do a title unification fight with Tom Aspinall for well over a year but ended up vacating the belt, retiring, and putting the UFC heavyweight division on hold.
While Jones clearly wants to fight at the White House and in front of President Donald Trump once again, it’s also clear that he has a lot of work to do to convince White and the UFC brass.
