Jon Jones has rarely bothered to answer Colby Covington in public. This time he did.
The response came after Covington went on The Ariel Helwani Show and called Jones a “demon”, blaming the former champion’s “bad energy” for Steveson’s 12-second knockout at the hands of Sean Sharaf at UFC 331 in Los Angeles on September 19.
“I think a lot of bad energy comes onto him from Jon Jones,” Covington said of Steveson, the 2020 Olympic freestyle wrestling gold medallist who has worked with Jones as a corner coach. Covington went further, telling Steveson he should ditch Jones for someone like Daniel Cormier, Jones’s long-running rival.
‘Boy, you’re obsessed with me’
Jones answered on X on Wednesday with a thread aimed directly at Covington.
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“It’s funny that you blame Gable’s loss on my ‘negative energy.’ Meanwhile, I’m an undefeated fighter living the absolute American dream.”
“We started off in the same dorm room, yet I’ve earned and achieved literally ten times more than you have.”
“Boy, you’re obsessed with me. A blind man could see that.”
Jones also took aim at Covington’s 2019 UFC 245 loss to Kamaru Usman, writing: “Colby, I think your deep hatred is directed at the wrong Black guy. It was Usman who broke your face, not me.”
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Covington drags Cormier back in
Covington hit back on Thursday with a line that referenced Jones’s 2021 domestic violence arrest.
“The things I say only bother you because they’re true @jonnybones. You’re a narcissistic abusive sociopath. Your achievements inside the octagon don’t make you a better person outside of it.”
He signed off with another jab at Steveson’s coaching setup: “If Gable really cares about advancing in his career, he should leave you and go train with a real man like Daniel Cormier.”
From college dorm to open warfare
The two were roommates at Iowa Central Community College in the late 2000s, both wrestlers before they ever stepped into a cage. The friendship has long since curdled into one of MMA’s most durable grudge matches, with Covington working Jones into interview cycles every few months.
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Jones retired from the UFC in June 2025 after vacating the heavyweight title rather than defend it against Tom Aspinall, who was elevated to undisputed champion by Dana White on the same night.
Covington, a former interim welterweight champion whose last MMA bout was a December 2024 loss to Joaquin Buckley, notified the UFC of his retirement in May 2026. He now competes in the Real American Freestyle wrestling promotion and faced Chris Weidman in RAF.
Steveson’s next scheduled appearance has not been announced by the UFC since the Sharaf loss.
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