A Jon Jones return? Gable Steveson says he made the call, and the vacant belt lit a fire

Three days after Tom Aspinall gave up the heavyweight title, the Jon Jones return talk has a source: Gable Steveson, who trains alongside Jon Jones every day in Albuquerque. At the UFC 331 media day on September 17, Steveson said he had called Jones and that the former champion was honored by the idea. Jones himself has said nothing. That gap between a training partner’s phone call and an actual booking is the whole story.

Key takeaways

At the UFC 331 media day on September 17, Gable Steveson (4-0) said he had called Jon Jones (28-1) and that Jones was honored by the prospect of a return.
The heavyweight belt is open: Tom Aspinall (15-3) vacated it on September 14 after a sparring accident damaged his right eye again, and Ciryl Gane (14-2) is in line to be elevated from interim champion.
Nothing is confirmed. Jones has not spoken publicly, the UFC has announced no fight, and he has been retired for roughly fifteen months while staying on the roster.

What Gable Steveson actually said about a Jon Jones return

A phone call, reported at a media day

Steveson fights Sean Sharaf on September 19 in Los Angeles, and he spent his media day being asked about someone else. His answer was specific about the act and vague about the outcome. He called Jones, and Jones listened.

Asked earlier by RMC Sport Combat whether his training partner could be tempted, he put it another way: “I think Jon would like to come back also. Maybe seeing the belt opens up puts another fire in him.”

Why his word carries weight, and where it stops

Steveson is not a pundit here. He shares a gym with Jones in Albuquerque and sees the work. “Jon’s my training partner every day in Albuquerque. So, I have seen what he can still do. I know he can do it at the highest level,” he said.

That is first-hand, and it is still second-hand as far as Jones is concerned. A fighter reporting another fighter’s mood is not an announcement. No date, no opponent, no contract, and no word from the man himself. Steveson also made a point of wishing Aspinall well: “I hope Tom gets well. I hope the eye gets healed up the way it should, and maybe he’ll step in the cage again.”

Why the vacant belt changes the maths

Three days that reopened the division

On September 14, Aspinall vacated the undisputed title. He had agreed to a fight date and was back sparring when an accident caused further damage to the right eye that had already required multiple surgeries. His last appearance was UFC 321 in Abu Dhabi on October 25, 2025, a first-round no contest against Gane after eye pokes. He was explicit that he was not retiring.

Gane, interim champion since stopping Alex Pereira in June, is expected to be elevated to undisputed champion. For a returning Jones, that matters in a very concrete way: he already stopped Gane in the first round to win the vacant heavyweight title in 2023.

A frozen title, and what unfroze it

For eleven months the heavyweight picture waited on one eye. That wait is over, and the division can be fought for on a normal schedule again. Jones is the name that benefits most from a belt without an owner, because a shortcut to a title fight is the only version of a comeback that suits a 28-1 record and nothing left to prove against contenders.

I called Jon today, and he's, honestly, he's honored to have the opportunity to maybe come back.
— Gable Steveson, at the UFC 331 media day on September 17

The obstacles nobody has cleared yet

Fifteen months, three tests, no statement

Jones retired around June 2025 and never left the roster. Sherdog reports he has been drug-tested three times in 2026, which is what the testing pool does with a fighter who has not formally quit the sport. It is a signal, not a plan. Until he speaks or a bout agreement exists, the return is a rumour with a credible messenger.

A legacy fight he is already in

He is not short of motivation from outside the cage either. Islam Makhachev (29-1), fresh off his first welterweight title defence and a new record for consecutive wins in the UFC, has spent the week attacking the value of Jones’s title run over his drug-testing history. “But your whole life seems to be tied to breaking the rules one way or another, and somehow, you’re never the one to be blamed,” Makhachev wrote. Jones answered that the testing partners of the time treated his failures as unintentional and not performance-enhancing.

That argument is about the past. A belt with no holder is about the present, and it is the one thing that has ever moved Jones off a decision.

Track the heavyweight picture with real numbers

Records, finishes, activity and our own ratings for every heavyweight in this story are updated in the FightHub app. Download it to see who gets the first shot at the vacant belt, the moment it is signed.