A long-awaited heavyweight title clash between current champion Jon Jones and former kingpin Stipe Miocic has finally been officially announced as the headlining fight for UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden in New York City on November 16th.
Since quickly beating Ciryl Gane by a 1st round guillotine choke submission to win the vacant heavyweight title in March of last year, the 37-year-old Jones has been adamant that his first title defense would be against the 42-year-old Miocic, seeing that as a legacy fight that would further bolster his case to be considered the sport’s ‘Greatest Of All Time’.
Miocic certainly wields impressive credentials as he’s a former two-time heavyweight champion, whose four successful title defenses against the likes of Daniel Cormier, Francis Ngannou, Junior dos Santos and Alistair Overeem have led to him often being touted as the greatest heavyweight ever in the UFC.
Unfortunately though, the fight between the two was indefinitely delayed when Jones suffered a serious pectoral muscle injury that required surgery and a lengthy recovery.
That’s led to the fight being delayed for over a year, and some unrest to build over whether Miocic is the right opponent for Jones upon his return given that he’s now 42-years-old and hasn’t fought since a KO loss to Francis Ngannou back in 2021.
And further strengthening that case, in the mean time Tom Aspinall has risen to interim-heavyweight title status after beating Sergei Pavlovich by KO in the first round, and then subsequently defending the title with a 1st round KO finish of Curtis Blaydes as well.
That’s left fans clamouring to see Jones vs Aspinall, but the UFC brass have stuck to their guns and so Jones vs. Miocic now leads the show at UFC 309 in November, supported by a co-main event lightweight clash between Michael Chandler and Charles Oliveira.
