Stipe Miocic (20-4) recently responded to critics of his UFC 309 title shot booking against Jon Jones (27-1).
Miocic was originally scheduled to challenge Jones for the heavyweight title at UFC 295 in November 2023 before “Bones” was forced out with an injury. Tom Aspinall knocked out Sergei Pavlovich in a short-notice interim title fight on the same card.
While Aspinall initially called for Jones to be stripped of the title, he later started rallying for a title unification bout against Jones. “Honey Badger” even defended his interim strap with a KO win over Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 this past July. However, Jones remained adamant on fighting Miocic upon his return, leading to their main-event booking at UFC 309 on Nov. 16 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Miocic last fought at UFC 260 in 2021, when he lost his strap to Francis Ngannou via brutal KO. While many consider Aspinall the rightful title contender, the UFC has defended the booking, citing Miocic’s status as arguably the greatest heavyweight of all time. As for Miocic, he merely called for his shot and the UFC gave it to him without having to do much. Miocic also believes that with the shared legacy between him and Jones, more people want to see this fight rather than “Bones” fight Aspinall.
UFC 309: Jones vs Miocic. Saturday at 10 ET on ESPN+. Order Now!
“It wasn’t my choice. It’s a fight I wanted, and the UFC gave it to me,” Miocic told MMAFighting.com. “They didn’t have to. They gave it to me… I believe people want to see that. I think a lot more people want to see the fight than him fight Aspinall.”
Aspinall might never get to fight either Jones and Miocic, as both have repeatedly hinted at retirement following their UFC 309 clash. Jones’ longtime coach, Brandon Gibson, also recently said that he’s approaching this as “the last rodeo.” And while Miocic is also approaching it similarly, it’s nothing new for him.
“I think every fight, I’m always preparing for my last one,” Miocic said. “I always thought about retiring after my first UFC fight. I say that all the time. Who wants to get beat up for 10 weeks, 12 weeks, come back and do it again? I love what I do and it’s fun. So, we’ll see but right now my task at hand is Jon. That’s all I care about. That’s what I’m thinking about.”
