At the age of 37, the largest consensus of all time has hung up the gloves.
There has certainly been a lot of drama and controversy in the career of Jon Jones, but when it comes to what he has achieved in the Octagon, his run is unparalleled.
Dana White announced that Jones retired during the press conference after the fight at UFC Baku, where the UFC CEO stated that they had a phone call with 'Bones'.
With the heavyweight division now free to continue with the new undisputed champion Tom Aspinall in the hope of staying active, it is time to see why many consider Jones as the goat.
Although it is difficult to choose only five striking victories from his 28 Pro victories, these are the victories that 'Bones' show his best.
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
5. Lyoto Machida – UFC 140
In his second defense of the light heavyweight title, Jon Jones faced Brazilian striking specialist, Lyoto Machida in the main event of UFC 140 in December 2011.
There were many questions about how the young champion would deal with the creative and unorthodox approach to 'The Dragon'.
The first round was a matter of this, because Machida found some success before Jones could turn the script in the second with one of the most violent entries of all time.
After he had stitched the challenger in a standing guillotine, Jones let go of his grip when an unconscious Machida fell to the ground.
'Bones', in a ruthless way, ran away from his fallen opponent when fans saw the nasty side of the light heavyweight champion.
4. Ciryl Gane – UFC 285
This can be controversial for the placement, but here is us.
There were, and still, some big questions about the wrestling of Ciryl Gane, and they were certainly exposed to this fight, but on their way to the matchup, not many predicted that Jon Jones would easily make this fight look like.
His run in light heavyweight before he left for three years was less than fantastic, and after all this time, he knew how Jones would perform like a heavyweight.
The fact is that this fight did not answer some of those questions, because 'Bones' was able to secure the first removal he tried and quickly lock up a guillotine choke to end years of anticipation in just over two minutes.
Jones not only did his heavyweight debut, he led fans to wonder if a former interim champion was in the first place ever so good.
3. Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua – UFC 128
Much has changed in the time between Jon Jones who won his first UFC title and retires on June 21, but one fact remains the same, he is still the youngest UFC champion in history.
The 23-year-old made a turn of a month after his victory over Ryan Bader and he defeated the champion not just to mark his arrival, Jones dominated a legend of the sport in Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua before put him in the third round.
A combination of the performance itself and the way he did it makes Jones' very first UFC title fight one of his best victories.
2. Alexander Gustafsson – UFC 165
There are a whole series of Jon Jones title defenses, including his second fight with Alexander Gustafsson, which you could put on this list because he was so dominant.
Jones' meeting in the championship rounds to catch the victory of Gustafsson in one of the largest UFC title fights of all time, perhaps the true reflection of how great 'bones' was.
He was certainly not dominant, but in this fight the champion showed that even when he met another elite hunter who shot all the cylinders, he could dig deep to defend his crown.
There are many examples of fighting in which he has hardly suffered any damage, but how good Gustafsson was this night, and the fact that Jones was still at the top makes this even more impressive than a one -sided victory.
1. Daniel Cormier – UFC 182
There is an argument that Jon Jones vs Daniel Cormier is not only the best UFC rivement of all time, it is the highest level -fight ever taken in the Octagon.
'DC' was the perfect opponent for 'Bones' in so many ways and yet the title defender eventually won four of the five rounds on all three Scorecards.
Jones surpassed his rival when he argued as the most well-rounded hunter in MMA history, surpassed Cormier and brought him down.
After he had handed Cormier his first loss, the greatest consensus of all time noted that his opponent was 'only human' before he apologized for 'Klaseloos' because of his aversion to his challenger.