LAS VEGAS -- It will be a massive disappointment if Jon Jones follows through with his comments to Clocked N Loaded on Saturday and retires following his heavyweight title defense against Stipe Miocic in the main event of UFC 309 on Nov. 16 at New York's Madison Square Garden.
In the nearly quarter of a century that Dana White has run the UFC, there have been precious few major fights that fans wanted to see which did not get made.
Randy Couture against Fedor Emelianenko is the one that springs to mind first.
Brock Lesnar versus Emelianenko is another.
We never saw Jones versus Anderson Silva; Silva versus Georges St-Pierre or Ronda Rousey versus Cris Cyborg.
Given the sheer number of bouts the promotion puts on in a year, that's a very small number.
But if Jones lays down the gloves after his title defense with Miocic, we'll add Jones versus Tom Aspinall to that list.
Jones was leaving Noche UFC at Sphere in Las Vegas on Saturday when he was asked if the Miocic fight would be his retirement bout.
"This is going to be the last time," Jones told Clocked N Loaded.
If he walks away, good for him. He'll have earned millions, made himself into the greatest mixed martial arts fighter of all-time and most importantly, will exit with all of his faculties intact. The significance of that last point cannot be overstated.
Jon Jones confirmed to @ClockedNload that his fight against Stipe Miocic will be his last one - planning to retire after #UFC309 pic.twitter.com/rz4yUAa4SW
— Clocked N' Loaded (@ClockedNload) September 15, 2024
It was hardly a shock that Jones acknowledged what many who have followed him closely have believed. He's fought once in more than four years at this point, a first-round submission of Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 on March 4, 2023, in Las Vegas to win the vacant heavyweight title, and retirement has seemed like a strong option for him since the Gane fight.
Jones was slated to face Miocic in New York last November, but he suffered a serious injury that required surgery. Jones' interest in fighting Miocic is simple.
His standing matters to him. The way people think and talk about him matters. And Miocic is widely regarded at this point as the greatest heavyweight in UFC history.
The UFC hasn't had a heavyweight who went on a long run and dominated the division, like St-Pierre did at welterweight or Silva did at middleweight. Miocic holds the record for most successful title defenses (four) and most consecutive title defenses (three).
Even though he'll be 42 when he walks to the cage to fight Jones and will not have won a bout in more than four years, Miocic hasn't lost that designation. And Jones knows he'll take that with a win at UFC 309.
Had it been someone else regarded as the greatest heavyweight ever, whom Jones has already defeated -- Daniel Cormier, say -- I believe he'd have retired following the Gane fight. He'd have then proven his point beyond any doubt.
Jones is the greatest fighter in mixed martial arts history and there is no one really close to him. But I'm not so sure he'll receive the recognition he's looking for if, as expected, he defeats Miocic.
If he defeated Miocic in 2020 or 2021, then certainly, Jones would lift that mythical crown from Miocic's head. At that point, Miocic was in the midst of a 4-1 streak in which he'd beaten Cormier twice, Ngannou and Junior dos Santos, all former heavyweight champions. But Miocic has not fought since losing his belt to Francis Ngannou at UFC 260 in Las Vegas on March 27, 2021, and he hasn't won since defeating Cormier at UFC 252 on Aug. 15, 2020.
White has said repeatedly that Jones is so competitive that he believes if Jones defeats Miocic, he'll stick around for at least one more bout to face Aspinall. That can't be dismissed out of hand. Fighters muse about retiring a lot, so it shouldn't be considered a slam dunk that the Miocic bout is his last.
Jones, though, is his own man and has always done things his way, which is why he's so frequently been at odds with White over the years.
Aspinall at this stage of his career is a legitimate threat to Jones. Maybe he would have been a legitimate threat to Jones at any stage of Jones' career, but as a 37-year-old who has largely been inactive in the last four years, Aspinall's size, speed, quickness, boxing and jiu-jitsu would present Jones some thorny problems. Aspinall has won his last three bouts by knockout, with the longest of them lasting just a minute, 13 seconds.
The way Jones views Aspinall is likely different than most of the rest of us do. Jones will see a guy whose biggest wins are over Curtis Blaydes and Sergei Pavlovich, and won't be so impressed. And hey, with no disrespect meant to either Aspinall, Blaydes and/or Pavlovich, his point would be understandable.
As much as I want to see a great heavyweight fight, Jones has earned the right to leave the game on his terms. If he decides he's had enough after fighting Miocic, then we'll just have to be disappointed we never got to see how great Aspinall truly might be.
This is arguably the toughest sport in the world, and rarely are there storybook endings.
Jon Jones should follow his heart and do what he wants, because he owes nobody a thing at this stage of his life.
If he can leave with his title in tow, his money safely in the bank and his faculties intact, that would be the storybook ending we so rarely see.