Since announcing his retirement, Jon Jones has been very active on social media when replying to fans.
The former UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion has been hitting back at some of the criticisms he has faced since calling time on his career.
Jones responded to Demetrious Johnson’s claim that he should be discredited in the UFC GOAT debate, while addressing many other comments.
While Tom Aspinall has stated that he knew the fight wasn’t going to happen, many fans were holding out hope for a huge heavyweight title unification.
The anticipation grew following positive updates from the UFC, which Jones has disputed, before attempting to clarify why his retirement took so long to become official.
Jon Jones compares himself to sports all-time greats after claiming that his drawn out retirement wasn’t his fault
Fans became so frustrated with both Jon Jones and the UFC during this process because all signs pointed to ‘Bones’ having no intentions to return to the Octagon.
As a result, the heavyweight division was held up with Tom Aspinall being forced to wait before eventually being promoted to undisputed the champion.
Jones previously said at the start of the month that he had already told the UFC what his plans were and that the promotion was choosing to continue presenting him as the heavyweight champion.
In a response to a fan on X, he once again suggested that while he had already come to a decision regarding his future, it was the UFC that continued to delay any action.
When responding to some of the criticisms he has faced, specifically in regards to not fighting Aspinall after the UFC claimed that he had agreed to the fight, Jones compared himself to some of the all-time greats in sport in a statement on X.
“Tom Brady LeBron James, you name them. Very rarely can you be really good at something and I have a bunch of people thinking how they would’ve done things differently. Even Muhammad Ali was absolutely hated by everyone at one point in his life. It comes with a territory. They hated Bruce Lee when he first came to America”
Jon Jones weighs in on the main event of UFC 317
The aftermath of Jon Jones’ retirement has continued to be a major talking point all the way through one of the biggest fight weeks of the year.
UFC 317 takes place this Saturday where a new lightweight champion will be crowned in the main event when Ilia Topuria takes on Charles Oliveira.
During his spree of responding to fans on X, ‘Bones’ was asked for a prediction for the matchup.
In several other statements, Jones claimed that he’s working even harder now that he’s retired, downplaying the negativity he receives as being “like WWE”.
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