The ‘biggest fight in UFC history was a go, but what happened?

According to UFC CEO Dana White, the ‘biggest fight’ in UFC history between Interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall and UFC heavyweight champion Jon ‘Bones’ Jones was apparently agreed to by both fighters.

That changed when Jon Jones made a phone call to fight promotion on Friday and decided to declare his retirement.

“Jon agreed to fight Tom,” White said during the UFC 316 Post-Fight Press Conference on June 7.

“The fight was done. We had the fight done a long time ago,” White told The MacLife on Sunday. “Why he decided not to fight, you guys will have to ask him that.”

Jon Jones will turn 38 in July. He did state that he had not trained since defeating Stipe Miocic in UFC 309 in November 2024.

It is not said what made Jones change his mind, but Dana White doesn’t think it was about the money.

“He was offered what he deserves for that fight,” White said. “I think the reality is, whatever changed his mind to fight, I don’t know. You’d have to ask him that. He’s 38 years old. I don’t know… I don’t know the answer to these questions. Only he does.”

“We had the fight done. Listen, our job is to make the biggest fights we can make and the fights the fans want to see. That’s what we tried to do, but the minute somebody starts talking about retirement, you know my philosophy on that; you should do it,” continued White.

“We had the fight done. You saw me talking about it very confidently that this fight was going to happen and then he changed his mind,” White explained. “He called us and just started saying, ‘You know what, I think I’m done. I want to retire and it’s been a great run. I appreciate everything.’ And that was it. He was absolutely, positively sure that he wanted to retire.”