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‘Just disappear’: Fans react to Jon Jones retirement announcement

Home » ‘Just disappear’: Fans react to Jon Jones retirement announcement

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UFC 309: Jones v Miocic — Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC

Jon Jones is one of the greatest fighters of all time, without question… so why has the reaction to his retirement not been unanimous praise?

To say Jones’ legacy is complicated would be an understatement. His in-cage accomplishments are nearly unmatched: The youngest fighter ever to win a UFC title (he did it at 23 when he beat Mauricio “Shogun” Rua). Eight straight light heavyweight title defenses, 11 in total. Won a vacant heavyweight championship and successfully defended it once. Never legitimately lost in 30 pro fights.

And then there are the missteps. His first title reign ended when he was stripped for a hit-and-run conviction in which he fled the scene after colliding with two other vehicles, one containing a pregnant woman. He regained the undisputed title with a spectacular head kick of Daniel Cormier, only to have that result overturned when he tested positive for banned substances.

A close call against Dominick Reyes. A three-year break from competition. No fight with Francis Ngannou. No fight with Tom Aspinall. Legal issue upon legal issue, including a domestic battery charge in September 2021 on the same night he was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame Fight Wing.

Again, complicated.

Fans seem to feel the same way as there were a variety of reactions to the news that Jones no longer plans to compete in MMA, not all of them reverential.

Check out what the MMA Fighting community had to say about Jones’ retirement below.

MoodCrusher

What a pathetic selfish individual, no regards to his job, all the people waiting for him, delaying a whole division for all that time. Just disappear.

aceknighthigh

Lol finally. Jon was never fighting this guy and such a blatant duck will be a part of his legacy. Tom said he would retire Jon without even stepping into the cage and he was 100% right. Jon didn’t want it with Francis, didn’t want it with Tom, and was very selective about who he fought when he moved up to a division where guys were his size.

The UFC’s handling of this has been an absolute shit show. Complete clowns and idiots running this to take this long to do the obvious. And they basically admit they held Tom out, putting to rest all this bs about Tom choosing to sit out or being some Michael Chandler type

“I obviously feel bad for Tom that he lost all that time and obviously money but we’ll make it up to him,” White said. “Tom Aspinall’s a good guy. He’s been incredible through this whole process that we’ve gone through. He’s been willing to do anything, fight him anywhere at any time and do this and now he’s like ‘I’ll fight anybody — you tell me who and I’ll fight them.’

But of course Dana still can’t admit he fucked up. If they had competition or any sort of serious leadership everyone involved in choosing to wait this long would be on the chopping block. The fact that a simple deadline got Jon to retire says it all. They weren’t even trying to get Jon in there.

All hail Tom Aspinall the reigning, defending HW champion of the world, something he’s been for a year now.

The_Welsh_Idiot

So this is it.

No octagon interview.

No press conference.

No pomp, no circumstance.

A sport in tatters at the moment.

Just a message from the brass, 10 mins into a press conference in Baku.

A slimy exit from a Nelk boys podcast.

Just another tainted part of the ‘Jon Jones legacy’.

He dissappears into irrelevance, with fans already tearing that legacy apart.

We should have been celebrating his talent and the memories he left us with today. Instead, we are all cheering as a despicable cheat leaves the sport, and we all hope its for good.

semantic5

Dana on Jon Jones after Francis KO’d Stipe:

If I’m Jon Jones, and I’m home watching this fight, I start moving to 85. Listen, I could sit here all day, you know, and tell you what show me the money means. I tell you guys this all the time, you can say you wanna fight somebody, you know, but do you really want to?

Dana on Francis after he left the UFC:

Francis didn’t wanna fight Jon Jones. We did everything in our power to try to make that Jon Jones fight.

Dana on Jon Jones now:

I’ve said it a million times and I’ll say it again — he’s never ducked anybody

I know it’s all theatre, and you are quite the Bolshoi artist, Dana, but Jon retired, so please speed along to the part where you say Jon never wanted to fight Tom. We know it’s the next act.

Nicolas Caged

So glad it’s finally over. Looking forward to Tom’s first defense as undisputed HW champion! #StrippedJonDuckJones

Abstractions

What a wet fart the end of his career was.

Froztken

“I’ll retire Jon Jones without even fighting him.”
– Tom Aspinall

_Frontman_

How unceremonious.

On brand for Jon though, train wreck as a fighter and human being.

You would have thought the UFC would have made the announcement a big production, nope just gone.

jesusjr

Feels weird that I am not sure I believe this until Jon makes official comment. This just feels like more negotiating where down line we were Jon is unretired coming back to fight when UFC needs him.

If this is the end of Jon’s career its very anti climatic. As much as much as I would have love to see him lose realistically I was expecting Jon to mess up again in his personal life and that would have ended his career.

LaRusso

Good. I truly hope Jones rides off and lives a great life. One that’s so good that he never comes back to the sport again.

ClarkJKent

When Dana said Jones would fight Aspinall, 100%, thats how you knew it would never happen.

stippenstoh

Farewell greatest duck of all time, see you in jail in a few years.

Here’s to Tom, the real HW champ since years.

BushSmoosher

“My decision comes after months of icing tom and holding up a division for my own narcissistic needs for attention. I’m a clown and the sport is better without me.”

Birdshow1

If it’s the end he goes out on top as undefeated, never losing any of his many title fights, and best pound for pound fighter in MMA’s short history.

NutsoBullotso

Legacy, lol!

Fist City

I used to be bummed that the BS Hamill loss was on his record, now I am so glad it went down that way. Maybe it’s karmic equilibrium for the fact that he absolutely DID lose to Reyes, and I personally scored the first Gus fight for Gus. You know for the rest of his life he’s gonna walk around saying “I’m really undefeated”… but that ‘L’ will always be on the official record, no matter how loud the duck quacks.

ppg

in that interview from full send podcast a couple of days ago, Jones admits that this coming wave of fighters will keep getting better and better compared to previous (and his) generation. And that it will become almost impossible to be undefeated as he was. So I think he’s happy that he can claim greatest ever in his era. Guys like GSP will be very humble and acknowledge it for him, Khabib probably doesn’t say anything. He’s in a good spot with his contemporaries as far as the legacy that he wants to perceive he has.

Verbs

Jon who?

stippenstoh

DW: “Ok Jon, you won, we pay what you demand”

JJ: “you know what, I think I’m done”

He really solidified his legacy these past years.

ThunderingHochuli

At least it’s done.

j*nes was Heavyweight Champion in my eyes even less than GSP was Middleweight Champion.

But at least we can move forward. I’ll try not to cry about Ngannou.

TheRisqueReaper

Emotional adolescent. PED cheat. Legendary