UFC Heavyweight Chaos Could Pull Jon Jones Back In

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Jon Jones appears to be reconsidering his future in mixed martial arts now that the UFC heavyweight picture has been thrown into chaos once again.

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Earlier this week, Tom Aspinall announced he had vacated the heavyweight title due to his ongoing injuries. The plan had been for Aspinall to rematch Ciryl Gane at UFC 334, but after re-injuring himself in training, the 33-year-old decided he did not want to hold up the division while his return timeline remained unknown.

Aspinall dropping the title drew a reaction from Jones, who questioned the legitimacy of the injury. The two never actually fought, despite Aspinall serving as interim heavyweight champion during Jones’ reign atop the division. Jones avoided the matchup at every opportunity and reportedly turned down a $30 million offer from the UFC to make it happen, a stretch that ultimately led to his first retirement from the sport in June 2025 and Aspinall’s promotion to undisputed champion.

Jones briefly walked that retirement back and re-entered the UFC’s testing pool, but officially retired for good this past April. According to training partner Gable Steveson, Aspinall’s title vacation has reignited his interest in competing again.

“I think Ciryl Gane deserves (the undisputed title) he’s a fantastic fighter and he’s a guy that goes out there and he’s beating everybody besides the infinity stones of fighting, (Francis) Ngannou and Jon,” Steveson told RMC Sport Combat when asked about the state of the heavyweight division.

“I think Jon would like to come back also, maybe seeing this belt open up put another fire into him. Jon’s my training partner everyday in Albuquerque so I’ve seen what he can still do and I know he can do it at the highest level, and maybe his time will come again and I think it will,” Steveson added.

Despite Steveson’s comments suggesting Jones is eyeing a comeback, it remains unclear whether UFC CEO Dana White would entertain that possibility at this stage.

With Aspinall stepping away from the title, Gane will be elevated to undisputed champion, since he already holds the interim belt. Gane has received multiple callouts for his first defense, with Josh Hokit requesting a title shot and recent rival Alex Pereira doing the same.

There is speculation that Pereira is the frontrunner to land the fight with Gane, continuing a rematch campaign he has pushed for over the past several months.

Opinion: Jones Returning Would Be A Mistake Worth Making Anyway

Jones sitting out the Aspinall era was always going to invite second-guessing, and Aspinall vacating the belt gives him the cleanest opening yet to walk back his retirement without directly confronting the man he spent years avoiding. That distinction matters more than it might seem. Jones can frame a return as chasing an open title rather than finally answering Aspinall’s callouts, which is exactly the kind of narrative control he has built his late career around.

Whether White actually wants this is a separate question, and a fair one. Jones’ history of pulling out of fights, combined with a heavyweight division that finally has real momentum behind Gane and Pereira, makes it reasonable for the promotion to move on without him. But UFC has rarely turned down a Jones headline when one was available, and a heavyweight picture this unsettled is exactly the kind of moment that tends to pull him back in.

If Jones does return, expect the promotion to build it around the vacant title rather than a direct Aspinall fight, at least initially. That keeps the door open for the matchup everyone still wants to see, without forcing either side into a fight neither seemed eager to have when it actually mattered.

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