After their planned meeting at UFC 295 fell through, UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones and two-time former champion Stipe Miocic will now meet at UFC 309. The event takes place Nov. 16 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Jones won the then-vacant championship in March 2023 with a first-round submission victory over Ciryl Gane. That fight was made when UFC champion Francis Ngannou departed the promotion after contentious contract negotiations. Many felt Jones delayed his move to heavyweight until Ngannou was out of the picture entirely.
Jones and Miocic were then matched for that November before Jones suffered a torn pectoral tendon that forced the fight to be postponed.
Miocic is a heavyweight legend but he has not won a fight since a win over Daniel Cormier in an August 2020 rubber match. His lone fight since that win was a knockout loss to Ngnanou in March 2021.
With Jones sidelined and Miocic long removed from his last victory, many believe Tom Aspinall is now the UFC’s top heavyweight. Aspinall defeated Sergei Pavlovich to become interim champion at UFC 295, the same event where Jones vs. Miocic was originally booked. Aspinall followed up that first-round stoppage with a first-round knockout of Curtis Blaydes in July.
Despite the increasing concerns over the idea of Jones vs. Miocic for the top prize in the division when Aspinall has grabbed all recent headlines, UFC CEO Dana White has remained steadfast that Jones vs. Miocic is the right fight for the UFC to pursue.
“What do I do?” White asked at a recent press conference. “The guy who’s looked at as the greatest heavyweight in the UFC, right? This fight’s set up. Jon Jones gets hurt. It’s not his fault. He has to wait and go back into training camp again. He was training. So do I just yank it away from Stipe and say, ‘Hey, go f— yourself and sit on the sidelines for two more years’?”
