Jon JonesJeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Jon Jones added another impressive achievement to a career that has been full of them, capturing his first heavyweight title defense with a third-round knockout win over Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 from Madison Square Garden.
After the fight, Miocic announced he would retire from the sport:
Things started off well for Miocic in the first round, but it didn’t take long for Jones to make his move. While Miocic was able to land a few nice counters with Jones coming in, he got just comfortable enough that Bones hit a trip with ease.
From there, he went to work on the ground where he held a major advantage. The ensuing downpour of elbow and ground-and-pound had most online judges handing Jones a 10-8 victory in the round.
Meanwhile, Miocic really didn’t have many answers when the two were on the mat and several noted that he wasn’t quite looking like himself by the end of the opening round.
The second round was much more of the same. Miocic was able to connect with the occasional punch, but Jones systematically picked apart his defenses.
Once the fight got to the third, Jones slowly opened things up a bit more and finally uncorked the spinning back kick to the body that crumpled the challenger.
The New York native had notably never fought in his home state throughout his storied career. A few appearances in New Jersey were the closest thing so it was significant that the future Hall of Famer could create at least one memorable moment in his home state.
This one will certainly go down in the books as it further legitimizes Jones as the heavyweight champion. Much of his career was spent dominating the light heavyweight division, but he made the switch to the UFC’s biggest division with a win over Ciryl Gane in 2023.
Jones is now 37 and has definitely reached a new stage in his career. He has just two fights since 2020 and has flat-out said that he doesn’t really want to fight current interim champion Tom Aspinall.
“More than likely not,” Jones told Kevin Iole, per Andreas Hale of ESPN. “I feel like Tom Aspinall is — I don’t want to say nobody — but he hasn’t proven anything, he hasn’t done anything. I’m not here to gamble on someone else making a name off of me.”
Jones went on to explain that he’s looking for fights that appeal to him and that includes current light heavyweight Alex Pereira.
“If there were to be a fight with a guy that’s still on our UFC roster that would be not only financially worth it but legacy worth it, it would be Alex Pereira,” Jones said.
While it might be frustrating that Jones has little interest in unifying the interim belt that Tom Aspinall holds and his official title, there’s no denying that a matchup between Jones and Pereira would also do huge numbers and provide an instant classic.