Jon Jones has questions about the UFC White House card. And why he isn’t on it.
On Saturday, the UFC announced that Alex Pereira and Ciryl Gane are set to fight for an interim UFC heavyweight belt in the co-main event of UFC White House card on June 14, with a Ilia Topuria vs. Justin Gaethje lightweight title unification bout serving as the headlining attraction.
Jones has long campaigned to face Pereira and for a spot on the historic White House card, but wasn’t included in the final line-up. UFC CEO Dana White later said at the UFC 326 post-fight press conference that “never, ever, ever, which I told you guys 100,000 times was Jon Jones even remotely in my mind to fight at the White House,” and it would be “very fair” to say Jones is retired from the sport.
As he has often in the past, Jones responded to the news with a series of tweets that have since been deleted.
“So all of this negotiating was complete bullshit, is that what you want me to agree to publicly?” Jones wrote, later adding, “I’m released from the UFC?!!”
“Man, how f*cking painful.”
“Laying in my bed, wrapping my head around this perception. All I can think is how f*cking painful.”
“And then the other half of me’s like, but is it really though?” he continued.
The news comes a week after Jones said in a meet-and-greet event in New Hampshire that he was “in negotiations with the UFC” for a possible fight at the White House. Talk of Jones’ participation at UFC White House have always been disputed by White, who has called Jones unreliable due to the former two-division champion’s history of outside-the-cage issues and drug-test failures. Jones also briefly retired in June 2025, before reversing that decision following the White House event announcement.
White added Saturday that Jones’ recent comments about dealing with severe arthritis in his hips and possibly needing hip replacements in the future were also reason to leave him him out of a White House card.
“I’m not saying they weren’t talking to Jon Jones and Jon Jones wasn’t interested in the fight,” White said. “What’s even crazier, Jon Jones came out and was like ‘I’m in negotiations right now for the White House fight’ after I had already sent a text to his lawyer saying ‘never going to happen, ever.’”
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