As many had anticipated, 42-year-old former heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic announced his retirement at UFC 309 on Saturday after his TKO loss to current champion Jon Jones.
“I’m done. I’m hanging them up. I’m retiring, thank God,” Miocic said in the octagon after the fight.
Miocic had returned to the Octagon this past weekend over three-and-a-half years since his last fight – a title losing KO loss to Francis Ngannou in March of 2021.
Given his age, lack of fight time in recent years and the fact that he was going up against the man many believe could be the ‘G.O.A.T’ in the sport, Miocic came into the fight as a heavy underdog, and that proved to be justified as Jones dominated the fight before finding a TKO finish in the 3rd round courtesy of a spinning back kick to the body.
Miocic’s legacy in the heavyweight division had already been secured regardless of the outcome of the fight however, having been a two-time heavyweight champion with the most consecutive title defenses in the division ever (3) and most combined title defenses (4).
Along the way Miocic beat a who’s who of heavyweight talent like Daniel Cormier (x2), Francis Ngannou, Junior dos Santos, Alistair Overeem, Fabricio Werdum, Andrei Arlovski and Mark Hunt among others.
Meanwhile, earlier in the night another veteran campaigner Jim Miller picked up a submission win as he also extended his record for having the most bouts in UFC history (45).
And afterwards the 41-year-old revealed that he has a maximum of five more fights left in him before he calls time on his long career.
“50 [UFC fights] is the hard stop,” Miller said at the post-fight presser. “You guys can hold me to that sh*t. Yeah, 100 percent. 100 percent. Unless, they’re like, ‘A couple million dollars.’ Then, it’s 51.
“I’m ready to move on to other stuff. There are definitely parts of me that are ready to make a commitment to something else. It’s going to be difficult. It’s got to be f*cking hard to not get to do this.”
And former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz has also spoken up to reveal that he plans to hang up his gloves after one final fight.
“I’ll tell you, I think I got a last dance,” the 39-year-old Cruz told TMZ Sports. “I want one last dance in me. Just go out there and have fun. And when I say fun, I mean fight to the bitter death and see what I have in me.”
