Odds of Jon Jones returning are ‘less than 50 percent’

Ben Askren doubts UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones fights again.

Jones notched his first title defense at heavyweight when he finished Stipe Miocic by Round 3 TKO at UFC 309 this past November. The next expected fight is a title-unification bout with interim champ Tom Aspinall, but Jones wants to be paid handsomely to consider that matchup.

UFC CEO Dana White went from guaranteeing that Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) vs. Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) happens in 2025, to being willing to move on if the fight doesn’t materialize – and Askren doesn’t think it will.

“If there were Kalshi odds on does Jon Jones fight again, I believe it would be less than 50 percent,” Askren said on his “Funky and the Champ” show with Daniel Cormier. “I think it would be less than 50 percent. I think it would be somewhere around 20, 30 percent that he fights again. I mean Jon’s not young. … I would say if there’s odds, I think it’s less than half that he ever fights again.”

PFL superfight heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou recently said White is the only obstacle in the way of him fighting Jones, but Askren dismissed that idea, as well.

“That one ain’t happening,” Askren said. “Obviously, I was outside of the UFC for a long time, and I always had the desire: Yes, I would love to fight these guys. But I’m under no delusion that Dana White is going to do some type of co-promote or something because he just doesn’t do that. So the idea that Francis is going to fight Jon is a pipe dream.”