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White moves on from Jones talk, says 'nothing wrong' with retiring

Josh Hedges / UFC / Getty

UFC president Dana White says he's no longer thinking about Jon Jones' heavyweight debut or the former light heavyweight champion's next fight in general.

"I've absolutely moved on," White told TMZ Sports.

"Listen, I put on fights every Saturday. We have a window where we try to build some fights and make some things happen. If the fights don't happen within that window, we move on."

The UFC originally targeted Jones as the next heavyweight challenger following the rematch between Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou in March. But the promotion shifted its focus to No. 2-ranked heavyweight Derrick Lewis after negotiations with Jones soured, with Jones wanting a pay increase to fight Ngannou and White seemingly unwilling to meet his price.

The promotion is eying Ngannou-Lewis 2 for August. White has mentioned that Miocic could face the winner, so Jones seems to be out of the heavyweight title conversation for the foreseeable future.

Jones has been in the gym for months, preparing for his long-awaited move to heavyweight, and he hasn't indicated that he's stopped doing so. The 33-year-old recently wrote on Twitter that he's unsure when his next fight will occur but assured that it'd be "huge" when it happens.

When asked if there's a chance Jones will never fight again, White said that's the former champion's call to make. But the UFC president isn't opposed to him retiring from mixed martial arts.

"That's up to Jon. ... He could absolutely fight again at 205 (pounds)," White said. "He said he wouldn't fight Stipe, and now Derrick and Francis are fighting, so we'll see how that fight plays out.

"There's nothing wrong with going out on top either. Jon Jones (is) undefeated, he's never been beaten. ... It wouldn't be a bad thing for him to go out on top."

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