Jon Jones' MMA résumé isn't ruined by not fighting Tom Aspinall

Jon Jones' retirement from mixed martial arts has felt more and more inevitable over the course of this year. And yet, it still blindsided the MMA world when UFC CEO Dana White broke the news on Saturday.

Months of speculation regarding Jones' future came to an abrupt conclusion in Baku, Azerbaijan, of all places, where the UFC was hosting a Fight Night. White nonchalantly informed the world that the greatest mixed martial artist of all time had retired, putting an end to a potential heavyweight title unification bout between him and Tom Aspinall.

"Jon Jones called us last night and retired," White told a group of reporters when asked directly about Jones. "Jon Jones is officially retired."

For starters, what an odd way to announce the conclusion of the greatest career in UFC history.

It was the complete opposite of former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell's retirement from the UFC in 2010. The UFC brought Liddell to a news conference in the lobby of the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where he had the opportunity to make the announcement himself and answer questions from the media.

The UFC's International Fight Week is this weekend in Las Vegas, a perfect occasion to give Jones the same opportunity and spotlight. Why wasn't he? It might have something to do with the feeling around Jones' retirement, which is undeniably "disappointment."

The fact that Jones is retiring from the UFC as heavyweight champion and walking away from the unification bout against interim champ Aspinall -- which had the potential to be one of the biggest fights in UFC history -- is just so utterly disappointing. Think about how long this sport waited to see Jones move up to heavyweight, to take on that challenge after he beat nearly every light heavyweight there was to beat throughout his 15-fight title reign. The intrigue of a heavyweight run teased fans for years, only to have it finally happen and be a bit of a farce. A vacant title fight against an overmatched opponent in Ciryl Gane in 2023, and a single defense against a semi-retired, 42-year-old Stipe Miocic last year.

Now, here's the part that fans and Jones' critics probably don't want to talk about: He doesn't owe the world the Aspinall fight. He doesn't owe the world anything. No one should blame him for a single decision he's made in recent years regarding the fights he's accepted, because they were all in his best interest as a champion. Any reasonable fighter would have made the same choices.

He got to cherry pick which path he'd take for a heavyweight championship, and he chose the path of least resistance with Gane. Then he was offered a very lucrative layup in the form of Miocic (no disrespect to Miocic, but he was basically a retired fighter at that point), and Jones took it. As he should.

The real misfire, however, has been the past seven months. He refused to retire but also refused to take the only fight that made any type of sense against Aspinall, and almost defiantly thumbed his nose at the UFC's entire fanbase while refusing.

The consequence of that refusal is that people will remember this "utter disappointment" feeling and question his legacy, which already was complicated by legal issues, multiple arrests and failed drug tests. Even as the news of retirement was breaking on Saturday, the Albuquerque Journal reported criminal charges filed against Jones on June 17 for allegedly leaving the scene of an accident in February.

But in the Octagon, his records, his body of work and his legacy are untouchable. No one should say his fighting résumé is ruined for refusing to fight Aspinall. But because this saga went on so long and came to such a disappointing result, there is an extra sentence to Jones' MMA legacy. And I do think it will be here permanently: "Jones was the greatest fighter who ever lived. And he did not want to fight Tom Aspinall."

Jones did post a retirement message on social media after White's comments, but he deserved better than that. He deserves his own Las Vegas news conference this week in the leadup to UFC 317, because a single sentence uttered by White at a news conference in Baku is not enough explanation. On a day when Jones's career came to an end, we should be talking about all of the magical moments he had inside the Octagon, not the one fight he didn't take.