Jon Jones has revealed a frightening diagnosis that could spell the end of his legendary fighting career.

The former two-division UFC champion retired from MMA last year after initially agreeing to a $30million fight with Tom Aspinall to unify the heavyweight division. He quickly announced the end of his retirement with plans to fight at UFC White House, which seems unlikely after Dana White shut him down.

Now, the consensus greatest fighter of all time has explained what could be the true reason that he isn’t keen to fight. The admission came after he asked if he would face long-time rival Daniel Cormier in a trilogy at RAF Wrestling.

Jon Jones says he suffers from ‘severe arthritis’ in grim career update

Jon Jones is widely considered one of the greatest fighters of all time, and has dominated the stars and legends of multiple generations en route to heavyweight and light-heavyweight тιтle wins. His last outing was at UFC 309 when he defeated Stipe Miocic in a fight that was seen as little more than an exhibition.

He was set to face Tom Aspinall last year, but pulled out of the fight and instead announced his plan to retire, which he quickly backtracked on after just a few days. Most recently he has been angling for a super-fight with Alex Pereira, but now seems to indicate wanting to give up on fighting altogether.

In a video posted by TikTok user ‘Noah The Boah’ that appears to have been covertly recorded on Meta Glᴀsses, Jones had a chat backstage at a Dirty Boxing event with Joaquin Buckley.

When Noah asked him about competing with Cormier again, this time in RAF wrestling Jones came over and spoke at almost a whisper about what seemed to be some private information about his very severe medical condition.

“I have severe arthritis, and most people don’t know that,” he told Buckley. “My left hip is covered in arthritis. I actually already qualify for a hip replacement, my last training camp? Man, I went to bed in so much pain.”

Buckley then asked if UFC were going to cover his medical costs, Jones replied: “I have a three-year-old baby boy and I want to use what I’ve got left of my hips to play with him.”