Jon Jones shares a touching message about his MMA career while training Gable Steveson for UFC 329

UFC great Jon Jones has suggested that he misses professional MMA competition.

The former UFC light heavyweight and heavyweight champion indicated that training Gable Steveson has reminded him of how much he misses competing inside the octagon. 

The air of mystery surrounding Jon Jones's MMA and combat sports future

Jon Jones's most recent pro MMA matchup witnessed him defend the UFC heavyweight title by beating former divisional kingpin Stipe Miocic via third-round TKO in November of 2024.

"Bones" was expected to take on the then-interim UFC heavyweight titlist Tom Aspinall in a title unification showdown next.

Nevertheless, he consistently maintained that the Aspinall matchup was unintriguing to him. The American combatant, in lieu of facing Aspinall, sought to fight fellow MMA icon and then-UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira in a heavyweight superfight. 

Well, the Jones-Pereira fight didn't materialize, and June of last year saw Jones retire from MMA. Aspinall was thereby promoted to become the UFC heavyweight champ, a title he still possesses.

Moreover, Jones affirmed his reentry into the UFC's drug testing pool the very next month, signaling that he'd like to fight again. The 38-year-old has, over the past several months, expressed interest in venturing into professional boxing as well. 

Recent reports in the boxing realm claimed that the sport's consensus lineal heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk was looking to box in his farewell match against either Jones or Deontay Wilder.

With the UFC's Zuffa Boxing venture up and running this year, many believe that the UFC could contractually permit Jones to box. All things considered, his MMA, boxing, and overall combat sports future remains shrouded in mystery for now. 

Jon Jones suggests he misses being an MMA fighter; talks coaching Gable Steveson ahead of UFC 329

In episode No. 5 of the UFC 329 Embedded: Vlog Series, Jon Jones was shown fulfilling his MMA coaching obligations for fellow Jackson Wink MMA Academy fighter, Gable Steveson.

The young fighter is an Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling at heavyweight. The American athlete has been training under the tutelage of Jones and other notable fighters and trainers. Steveson is scheduled to fight Elisha Ellison in a heavyweight matchup at UFC 329 on July 11. 

Many foresee Steveson, who's beheld as a grappling extraordinaire, as a future UFC heavyweight champion.

Jones himself has often waxed lyrical about the 26-year-old fighter, who's 3-0 in MMA and has previously performed as a pro wrestler in the WWE and tried his hand at American Football as well. 

Addressing his coaching of Steveson, Jones stated: 

"In my mind, I'm already trying to prepare him for 25-minute fights instead of 15-minute fights. I'm thinking ahead when it comes to him. Just trying to have him pick up exactly where I left off, as far as the standard that we were at. And we'll see that here." 

Furthermore, making a rather moving statement about how training Steveson makes him miss being an active MMA competitor himself, Jones said: 

"It just feels so good to be back here, you know. It makes me miss the game tremendously. But I had my time. I feel like, to be one of the best fighters, you have to be very selfish. And now it's time for me to learn more about being selfless."

He continued, "And so, I'm here at Team Steveson, giving him the best I've got, giving him my full support, all the way to the top." 

Watch Jon Jones discuss his training of Gable Steveson and how he misses competing in mixed martial arts below (*comments at the 1:30-minute mark of the video):