Jon Jones didn't read the room with his 'huge announcement'

It was a social media one-two punch that had the MMA world on tenterhooks.

"In 24 hours I'll be making a huge announcement! #AndStill" he wrote on X.

"In 24 hours, I have a big announcement. #GetReady #TheChampIsHere" he posted on Instagram.

In 24 hours I’ll be making a huge announcement! #Andstill
— Jonny Meat (@JonnyBones) February 5, 2025

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Jon Jones' posts on social media on Wednesday teased that something was coming. It was announcement, and it was big. And his choice of hashtags added more bait to the hook.

Surely this meant he'd be announcing his next fight, right?

Well, if you ask him, he just did. But if you ask a good number of his followers, you might get a different answer.

That's because Jones' "huge announcement" had precisely nothing to do with his career as the all-time greatest fighter in UFC history. Instead, he opted to gently troll his audience before announcing that his next fight would be... against the American healthcare system

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Taken in isolation, that's a worthy cause, and his involvement deserves applause and support. The rising cost of healthcare in the United States is gradually pricing people out of treatment, so for a prominent name like Jones to take a stand against it is admirable.

But the way the announcement was teased left a sour taste in the mouth for fight fans. It left his combined 12.5 million followers across X and Instagram feeling a tad misled and disappointed.

Given the positive message he was putting out into the world, that's probably not the ideal first impression for that sort of announcement to make. After all, everything Jones posts gets traction online, so there really wasn't the need for the big, misleading build-up.

Fans were hoping for the announcement of a UFC heavyweight title unification fight with Tom Aspinall. It's the biggest fight the UFC could book in 2025, and has the potential to be the biggest fight in MMA history. But for that to happen, the numbers need to add up, and both men have to be willing to sign on the dotted line.

From Aspinall's side, that's not going to be a problem. He's been calling for a fight with Jones ever since he demolished Sergei Pavlovich to capture the interim UFC heavyweight title last year. He's also stated that Jones is right to ask for "fuck you money" in order to accept such a fight.

Jones, meanwhile, has attempted to play down Aspinall's credentials as a title challenger, and even suggested that a fight with light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira would be bigger for his legacy.

But now, by pulling a bait-and-switch on his fans on social media, it appears Jones didn't read the room, and it's detracted from the message he wanted to put out there.

Rightly or wrongly, all fans want from their fighters is to see them fight. And when the biggest fight in MMA history is sitting there just waiting to be made, anything else – even a positive message – is just going to be a disappointment.

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