Jon Jones: ‘It Just seems like a huge opportunity.’

During the 2025 ESPY Awards, UFC legend Jon Jones made it clear on the red carpet that he is officially out of retirement.

Jones also plans to be added to the fight card for the White House UFC event.

If you’ve been paying attention to the saga of Jon Jones’ retirement, Jon Jones has been retired all of two weeks. The former two-division champion relinquished his heavyweight title and announced his retirement on June 21.

Jones then decided to come out of retirement on July 4 when President Trump made the announcement that he wanted to host a UFC event next Independence Day on the lawn of the White House.

“I was retired. I felt like I was at a place where I’ve done it all in the MMA space. I felt like there wasn’t too many more challenges for me and I just wanted to do something more than championships and money and Donald Trump mentioned that he wanted to have a fight at the White House Garden,” Jones told ESPN on the 2025 ESPYS Red Carpet show.

“That just seems like such a huge opportunity. I’m a very proud American. I have a lot of close friends who are in the military, and this is my act; I can’t call it service but to be able to entertain the country and the world at this level at the White House, it means the world to me. So, I’m back.”