Jon Jones has retired according to Dana White. Jones, the longtime UFC heavyweight champion, called the UFC on Friday night to tell them he was walking away, White revealed at a press conference on Saturday.

With that news White also announced that Tom Aspinall, who won the interim heavyweight championship in 2023, is now the official heavyweight champion. Aspinall has been chasing a fight with Jones since he earned the interim title, but Jones has not shown much interest since his last fight against Stipe Miocic in November.

And now Jones is gone...

"Jon Jones called us last night and retired," said White. "Jon Jones is officially retired. Tom Aspinall is the heavyweight champion of the UFC."

Jones is arguably the most dominant fighter in UFC history. His one official loss came against Matt Hamill in 2009 when he was disqualified for throwing illegal elbows. He first became the UFC light heavyweight champion in March 2011 and retained the title until it was stripped from him for testing positive to a turinabol metabolite in July of 2017. He won it back by December 2018 and held onto it until he vacated it to move to heavyweight where he won two title fights.

Jones is just 37 so it is entirely possibly this is not the last UFC fans see of him, even if he has only fought three times in the last six years.

For what it's worth, Jones has not posted anything about retiring on his social media.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Jon Jones Retired and Dana White Announced a New UFC Heavyweight Champion.

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