In their latest bid to force Jon Jones to relinquish his UFC heavyweight championship, a host of fans and critics on social media have engaged in a mass-unfollowing movement of the Rochester look-see-do fighter.
Jones has been on the sidelines from action since last November. He is yet to book a title unification fight against interim titleholder Tom Aspinall. Jones, however, is in no hurry to kickstart the process, it seems.
Yet to put pen to paper for a return to action later this year against the Atherton finisher, Jones has suggested his time in combat sports is already over. Competing just twice at the heavyweight limit since his debut back in 2023, the veteran has been candid about his fighting future.
Seeing a petition launched against him last week, the leaflet, which currently has north of 115,000 signatures, has called for the promotion to officially strip Jones of his heavyweight crown for his inactivity.
On Reddit, many have joined to note how they have now taken their next step to force Jones’ hand to either fight Aspinall or relinquish his heavyweight crown.
In their bid, they’ve launched a mass-unfollowing of the former pound-for-pound number one on his official Instagram account.
But this latest appeal has its fair share of naysayers. A particular commenter described the exercise as more than futile.
“Clowns all around us. People genuinely think a petition and unfollowing on Instagram will do something. They’re living in cuckoo land. And the people who want to do this ain’t even following him to begin with, so they’ll follow him just to unfollow…bringing Jones’ follow count right to where it’s at now. Truly a genius move!”
However, a second user backed the bid. They reasoned that a mass-unfollowing may hurt Jones’ pockets and marketability to a significant degree.
“Actually the unfollowing on Instagram would be very detrimental to Jones and the UFC. You see when Jones cuts out deals to advertise, how many followers Jones has will affect how much he will earn in these deals. Let’s say he loses 1/2 of his following overnight, I promise you he’s gonna be earning a lot less than he normally would. Absolutely because that’s how deals work.
“I would know because I work for a company that deals with influencers in similar ways, and follower count 100% matters when talking about how much you will get paid.”
But as far as Jones is concerned, this weekend, he pointed to an apparent newfound fanbase in the UK. All of that was made possible because of his rival, Aspinall.
Jon Jones thanks Tom Aspinall for promoting him
Once more goading Tom Aspinall after his lengthy trip to Thailand, Jon Jones made a rather interesting claim.
As far as he could see, most of those attending his seminar in Phuket were travelling from the United Kingdom. That gave Jones the chance to poke fun at Aspinall’s pursuit of a title fight. Jones claimed Aspinall had given him some free promotion.
“Just wrapped up the biggest seminar in Phuket history,” Jones boasted on Twitter. “Half the crowd flew in from the UK—how wild is that?! Massive shoutout to my guy Tom for all the free promo… Couldn’t have done it without you.”
Just wrapped up the biggest seminar in Phuket history
Half the crowd flew in from the UK—how wild is that?!
Massive shoutout to my guy Tom for all the free promo… couldn’t have done it without youSeriously though, I’m beyond grateful for this brand new UK…
— Jonny Meat (@JonnyBones) May 31, 2025
“Seriously though, I’m beyond grateful for this brand new UK following. You guys showed up with so much love and energy, and I felt every bit of it.“
