UFC analyst Din Thomas is tired of former two-division champion Jon Jones teasing fights and believes “Bones” just wants attention.
Jones relinquished his heavyweight championship and announced his retirement last month. Two weeks later, after President Donald Trump announced that a UFC event on the White House grounds was being planned for next year, Jones re-entered the anti-doping testing pool. Thomas wants to see Jones ‘ride off into the sunset’
“My initial thought when I heard that (Jones re-entered the anti-doping testing pool) was this guy loves attention. He loves attention. He’s just trying to keep his name out there and he loves attention,” Din Thomas said on Daniel Cormier’s 3 Rounds podcast.
“He’s dangling his status over our heads and I hate it. I’m going to tell you right now, I don’t give a f**k if Jon Jones ever fights again. I don’t care, man.
“He’s the greatest to ever do it, for sure. He’s great. He’s super-great, but I don’t care if he ever fights again,” continued Thomas. “Just ride off into the sunset. You know who I care about? I care about Ilia Topuria, Dustin Poirier, the dudes that are out putting their lives on the line for us. I care about those dudes. Jon Jones, I don’t care if he fights again.”
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“We spent a year and a half talking about him not fighting. A year and a half. I’m like, yo, just ride off dawg. You had a great career. You had two, great, Hall of Fame careers. Just ride off into the sunset. Stop playing with our emotions, man. I’m tired of it.”
While Thomas would like to see Jones stay retired, he admitted if Jones fights again that he’d be in the front row to see it.
“He’s become like Conor McGregor. It’s the Conor McGregor thing. Now, if Jon Jones came back, signed on the dotted line and he was fighting Tom Aspinall, yeah, I’d be excited for it. I’d be in the front row to watch it. But the fact that he’s dangling this carrot over our head about fighting, it’s completely is despicable. Just leave, man. Just leave. Is it really for attention? Does he need attention that bad?”
