Gable Steveson Says Jon Jones Left UFC Over Lost Motivation
Gable Steveson said Jon Jones walked away from the UFC because the motivation to fight was gone, not because he was ducking Tom Aspinall.
The Olympic gold medalist made the point while speaking with Michael Bisping during UFC 331 media availability, pushing back on the version of events that has followed Jones since he vacated the heavyweight title.
Bisping raised the optics first. Jones stepped aside, Aspinall later gave the belt back because of an eye injury, and now talk of a Jones return has started again.
“I’m just gonna throw this out there,” Bisping said. “It’s not a good look, is it, for Jon, like he walked away and then Tom can’t come back and then he’s coming back.”
Steveson did not treat that timeline as proof of fear. He said people are assembling the story from headlines instead of from Jones himself.
“I think it’s the media pieces of puzzle,” Steveson said. “We don’t look at the media.”
The 26-year-old has trained with Jones in Albuquerque and said he has known him for years. That relationship is why he rejected the idea that Jones fled Aspinall.
“A lot of people gonna say, ‘You know, John walked away from Tom, at this time of day, at this time,’” Steveson said. “And I’ve known John for years now. I don’t think that’s the case.”
His explanation was simpler.
“I think the case was he just—the motivation to fight isn’t there, and if it’s not there, don’t step in the cage,” Steveson said. “And I feel like that’s a lot of it that went into it.”
Bisping agreed on the fear question even while flagging the public appearance of the sequence.
“And John’s not scared of anyone,” Bisping said.
Jones last fought in November 2024, when he knocked out Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 and kept the heavyweight championship. He later retired, and Aspinall was elevated from interim champion to undisputed titleholder.
Aspinall never made a successful defense. His first title fight against Ciryl Gane ended in a no contest after eye pokes, and he vacated the belt on Sept. 14 because of ongoing complications that have kept him from medical clearance.
That vacancy is why the Jones conversation returned. Steveson has said separately that the open title “put another fire” into his training partner and that Jones felt honored by the idea of a possible comeback.
Those comments sit next to each other. One describes why Jones left. The other describes why he might come back now that the champion who waited for him is out of the picture.
Jones has not announced a fight. Gane is widely expected to be promoted from interim champion, and other names in the mix include Josh Hokit and Alex Pereira.
Steveson is not a bystander in that division. He is 4-0 as a professional, 1-0 in the UFC after a first-round knockout of Elisha Ellison at UFC 329, and he meets Sean Sharaf on Saturday at UFC 331 in Los Angeles.
Jones has been in his corner and on the mats with him. That closeness is the reason Steveson’s defense of Jones carries weight with some fans and why others will hear it as a teammate protecting a mentor.
The heavyweight picture has been unstable for more than a year. Jones left with the belt. Aspinall inherited it and could not defend it. Gane is next in line, and Jones is suddenly being discussed again after the one rival he never booked is medically sidelined.
Steveson’s position is that the first exit was about drive, not courage. Whether that answer holds will depend on what Jones does with the title now that it is available again.
UFC 331 goes Saturday at Crypto.com Arena, with Steveson trying to stay unbeaten while the division above him waits on the next official move from the promotion and, possibly, from Jones.