Jon Jones is not ready to be written off.
The former two-division UFC champion took to X on Friday to address the ongoing conversation about his physical condition with a message that left little room for debate. “Random thought: Arthritis hurts, it doesn’t make you cripple,” Jones wrote. “I’m still smashing 99.47% of you out there.”
The post arrives roughly two weeks after UFC CEO Dana White publicly declared Jones effectively retired, citing the heavyweight’s hip condition as the primary reason he was left off the upcoming UFC Freedom Fights 250 card at the White House on June 14. For Jones, Friday’s post reads as a direct rebuttal to that position.
Random thought: Arthritis hurts, it doesn’t make you cripple. I’m still smashing 99.47% of you out there.
— Jonny Meat (@JonnyBones) March 20, 2026
The arthritis disclosure entered public view in early February after footage recorded through Meta smart glasses at Dirty Boxing Championship 5 (DBX 5) in Houston surfaced online. In the clip, Jones, unaware he was being filmed, told fellow fighter Joaquin Buckley that his left hip was covered in arthritis, that he medically qualified for a hip replacement, and that the pain during his most recent training camp was severe enough to prevent him from sleeping. “My last training camp, dude, I went to bed in so much pain,” Jones said in the leaked video.
After the clip went viral, Jones confirmed the diagnosis in a statement to TMZ Sports while expressing frustration at the unintended disclosure. “Looks like a private conversation I had at DBX 5 in Houston made its way out into the wild,” Jones told TMZ Sports. “It happens. Like most fighters, we deal with injuries quietly sometimes and like in my case, for years. A lot of us walk around limping most days, paying the ultimate price for our health.”
White referenced the leaked footage at the UFC 326 post-fight press conference on March 8, using it to reinforce his position that Jones had no place on the White House card. “Never, ever, ever, which I told you guys a hundred thousand times, was Jon Jones ever even remotely in my mind to fight at the White House,” White said at the presser. “Jon Jones retired because of his hips. He’s got arthritis in his hips. Apparently, doctors say he should have a hip replacement.”
Jones had been targeting the White House card since reversing his mid-2025 retirement, having initially stepped away after declining to fight interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall. His name was tied to a potential matchup with Alex Pereira, who had vacated the UFC light heavyweight title and pushed for a move to heavyweight. That fight never came together. The Freedom Fights 250 lineup was announced without Jones, headlined by Ilia Topuria against Justin Gaethje, with Pereira taking on Ciryl Gane for the interim heavyweight title.
Following White’s comments, Jones issued a detailed statement on X on March 9 in which he disputed both the health narrative and the UFC’s account of negotiations. He maintained that genuine discussions had taken place and that the promotion had contacted him with a reduced financial offer as recently as the Friday before the card was revealed. He also disclosed he had already received stem cell treatment in preparation for the camp. “Yes, I have arthritis in my hip and it’s painful, but that doesn’t mean I can’t fight,” Jones wrote on X. “So let me get this straight, if I had accepted the lowball offer, suddenly my hip would be fine and I’d be on the White House card? That doesn’t make sense.” Jones closed the statement by formally requesting release from his UFC contract.
That stem cell treatment was discussed on The Joe Rogan Experience. Rogan, who said he helped Jones access the procedure through the clinic Ways2Well, pushed back on the notion that Jones is physically finished. “He doesn’t want to be done,” Rogan said on the podcast. “He does have arthritis in his hip. It bothers him, but it doesn’t bother him enough where he can’t fight. And he’s the greatest of all time, period.”
The situation has drawn responses from across the sport. Jones’ long-time rival Daniel Cormier said in February that the leaked video was the first thing to genuinely convince him Jones may have real physical limitations, and also questioned whether Jones truly did not know he was being recorded, pointing to the visible indicator light on Meta glasses during filming. Pereira took a more measured view. “I think every athlete has chronic injuries, serious injuries,” Pereira said in an interview. “If a high-level athlete says something like that, for the history he has, it’s not new to me.”
Jones, 38, last competed at UFC 309 in November 2024, stopping Stipe Miocic in the third round to retain the heavyweight title. His professional record stands at 28-1. No announcement regarding his requested contract release has been made by the promotion. The White House card is scheduled for June 14, and Jones is not on it.
Friday’s post is brief. But the intent is clear: Jones is contesting the idea that he is physically done, and he is doing it on his own terms.
