UFC 309 roundtable: Is this truly the last ride for Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic?
Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic might be past its best before date, but one can’t deny this is a legitimate battle of legends.
Between them, the UFC 309 headliners have 15 successful title defenses (11 for Jones), a combined 47-5 record (and Jones shouldn’t even have the one loss), and wins over a laundry list of UFC Hall of Famers and all-time greats. There’s no doubt fans have soured on this matchup given the year-long delay they’ve had to endure, and the continued success of interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall, who should be fighting Jones on Saturday if we’re being honest. But it’s still not a bad pair of names to see at the top of the Madison Square Garden marquee.
Making the moment even more significant is the fact that this could very well be the last fight for both men. Jones is 37. Miocic is 42. Neither has anything left to prove and a send-off at “The World’s Most Famous Arena” is the stuff dreams are made of.
MMA Fighting’s Alexander K. Lee, Mike Heck, and Jed Meshew took a moment to reflect on the momentous occasion and peer slightly ahead to a future that might not include Jones nor Miocic, plus what to make of Michael Chandler fighting Charles Oliveira instead of Conor McGregor, and more.
1. Do you think this is the last we see of Jon Jones and/or Stipe Miocic?
Lee: Naaaaaaaah, Jones is just trolling.
I’m going full Prince of Positivity mode here and predicting that, yes, if the UFC officially proposes the bout to both parties, Jones will sign on the dotted line to fight Tom Aspinall. As much as I’ve hated every aspect of how Jones has handled this situation, the truth is he’s never had a reason to entertain or promote the Aspinall matchup. If anything, his staunch refusal to acknowledge that Aspinall is the clear No. 1 contender—and in MMA Fighting’s estimation, the No. 1 heavyweight, period—has only made fans more eager to see the dastardly “Bones” receive his comeuppance.
Has Jones been playing three-dimensional chess to build up this fight the whole time? I mean, no, probably not, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t unwittingly played the role of the heel to a tee.
That’s not even getting into the Alex Pereira of it all, an opponent that Jones has openly targeted and would undoubtedly stick around for. Even if he never fights Aspinall, there’s a large portion of the fanbase that would be satisfied seeing Jones make Pereira his true retirement fight before sailing off into the sunset.
While I’m confident we get one more Jones fight, Miocic is definitely done. Win or lose, he’s taking the microphone after, mumbling some hard-to-hear-but-surely-deeply-meaningful words and then slinking away to a well-deserved retirement.
Heck: The answer to this question is different depending on who wins this fight. If Jones wins, it will be the last we see of Miocic. But if the most hilarious thing in UFC history happens, and Miocic wins the belt, I believe we see both again.
Buckle up. Let’s take a journey, and the destination ends, unfortunately, with Aspinall getting hosed.
Here’s the scenario for a Jones win: He does exactly what he recently previewed to Kevin Iole. Jones will get on the microphone, while the camera is pointed on the smiling face of Aspinall, and no-sell the man that unequivocally should get the fight with Jones—or be promoted to undisputed champion—to call out Pereira. And that’s the fight we will absolutely get if he does that. From a business perspective, I totally understand it as it would be the biggest fight the UFC can make right now that may or may not involve Conor McGregor. But Aspinall gets hosed, and it’s ridiculous.
Now, if Miocic wins—and after we get the greatest Watch Party reaction and post-fight show in this website’s history—Aspinall still gets hosed. Why? Because Miocic is a smart man, and he knows how much money he could make if he faced Jones again as champion. He’d get the champion’s extras in what would be a massively promoted second meeting. In my opinion, that’s what would happen, because he isn’t fighting Aspinall, and for his legacy, and his bank account, he absolutely shouldn’t.
Poor, poor Tommy Aspinall.
Meshew: I’m genuinely shocked my friends are this naive. Of course this is the last ride. Both men have all but chiseled it in stone with their words and actions.
Miocic is 42 years old, and after fighting Jones, he really will have nothing left to prove. He made plenty of money in his career and is smart enough to understand that his body is already deteriorating. You can’t put a price on health and continuing to fight on after this one, last legacy matchup would be incredibly dim, especially if he wins. If he wins, Miocic retires on the spot, the way Daniel Cormier should have when he beat Stipe to take the heavyweight title. And if he loses, obviously he’s leaving. The man basically already left anyway, seeing how he hasn’t fought in nearly four years.
As for Jones, do I really need to go through this again? Turn on any of our shows for the past six months and you’re bound to find me ranting about how unabashed Jones is about ducking Aspinall. It’s clear as day and at this point the only way to deny it is if your head is buried so far up Jones’ ... er, fandom, that you simply could never allow yourself to see reason.
And here’s the thing: I don’t blame Jon! Fighting Aspinall is a high-risk fight with only a small reward. If Jon miraculously agreed to fight Aspinall and won, maybe Aspinall immediately loses his next five fights and suddenly the win is like his Dominick Reyes “win.” Not a lot of upside there. And if Jones loses, it will be devastating. Not to his legacy for fans, but for Jones who is clearly obsessed with being “undefeated” (despite not being that) in a way that probably isn’t all that healthy.
No, the only reason Jon is continuing to fight is because he’s now in the Floyd Mayweather stage of his career where he will only fight people he knows he will beat. The man is making business decisions and Aspinall is bad for business. And I think the UFC has enough shame on it from this entire fiasco that even they won’t dare do Jones vs. Alex Pereira for the heavyweight title.
Unless of course Jon decides to drop back down to light heavyweight. Now wouldn’t that be something?
2. Michael Chandler avenges his loss to Charles Oliveira. What’s next?
Meshew: Conor McGregor.
“What?! Jed, you’ve been leading the ‘Conor McGregor will never fight again’ train for years now! How can you possibly think that?!”
Because the alternative is too terrible to imagine, folks.
Michael Chandler is 2-3 in the UFC, and while he has undeniably been fun, the man was a perfect McGregor opponent because he should be nowhere near the title picture. Islam Makhachev (or Arman Tsarukyan) has real dudes to defend against in this weight class, and I don’t need to see him continue down the road of lightweight’s greatest hits for title defenses.
Which brings us back to McGregor.
Surely at some point Conor must fight again, right? Either because he wants to get out of his current UFC contract so he can do the Mayweather Exhibition tour and make a killing, or at least because he’s the boy who cried comeback. He doesn’t need to fight for money, but the man loves attention, and there’s only so long he can keep playing the “I’m gonna smack all of them!” card when he keeps not fighting.
So with that, I think McGregor actually does fight in 2025, and while there are plenty of options for him, the UFC does seem keen on this Chandler fight. And while my thoughts about Michael Chandler are well-documented at this point, I will give the man his due: he’s a prize fighter. He knows that fighting Conor, and maybe winning, is better than getting put in the stockade by Islam.
So if Chandler somehow pulls it off, we’re back to the McGregor drawing board.
Heck: Sorry, Jed, but Chandler will be fighting for the UFC lightweight title if he beats Oliveira.
Would Chandler deserve it? From a wins and losses perspective, absolutely not. This would be Chandler’s best win by a significant margin in the UFC, but he would improve to a .500 record in the promotion, and be 2-3 in his past five fights in the toughest division in sports. But as we all know, none of that matters. Chandler has been a company guy through and through, he takes every opportunity to put the brass over in interviews, and also, all of his fights are absolute barnburners, which never hurts your case.
As the current divisional landscape appears, Tsarukyan is the clear next guy in line, and he’ll get his day in court at the beginning of 2025. If Chandler is coming off of a win against Oliveira, he’ll likely need to be a Makhachev fan, because if Tsarukyan wins, I’d be shocked if the UFC didn’t run that right back. But if Makhachev get his hand raised, Chandler will get the shot. The question we would need to ask ourselves is, “Who else is there right now?” Everybody in the UFC’s top 10, outside of Tsarukyan and Dan Hooker, are coming off of losses. If Chandler ever wants to fight for UFC lightweight gold, he needs to win this one, and I can probably say the same for Oliveira.
Lee: Yeah, McGregor!
OK, I’ll stop. I’m a positive person, but I’m not that positive.
Chandler definitely isn’t fighting McGregor ever and we should all be fine with that. Fortunately, there are a ton of great fights left for “Iron Mike” for however long he plans to continue fighting. Max Holloway. A Justin Gaethje rematch. Fresh blood rising up the rankings. And, yes, there’s an outside chance he is rewarded with shot at either Makhachev or Tsarukyan.
There’s a sick part of me that wants to continue pushing the Chandler vs. Paddy Pimblett matchup I’ve previously mentioned on On to the Next One, but I can’t make a reasonable case for Chandler fighting that far back in the rankings if he actually manages to beat Oliveira, one of the five best lightweights in the world (if he loses, though...).
No, Chandler deserves better if he avenges this loss, so I’ll push him towards a second dance with Gaethje. Their first fight was three years ago, if you can believe it, and it would be a shame if they didn’t share the octagon one more time before their careers wrap.
3. Outside of the top 2 fights, what one fighter are you most intrigued to see compete Saturday?
Heck: There’s obviously a few really good options, but I’m going with the bantamweight clash between Jonathan Martinez and Marcus McGhee.
Martinez, the man I’ve deemed “The Silence Behind the Violence,” is a very good fist-fighter, and entered the biggest fight of his career on an impressive six-fight win streak—a run that was so impressive, he was a decent favorite heading into a matchup with Jose Aldo. In the end, Aldo did what Aldo does and won a clear unanimous decision. Martinez proved he can bounce back from a loss in a strong way, but now he faces a guy in McGhee who has been a freaking finishing machine.
Is McGhee the real deal? He might be, but I certainly have questions based on his current level of competition. But if he goes out there on a big pay-per-view card and stops TSBTV to improve to 4-0 in the promotion, that will answer a lot of those inquiries, and will likely get him ranked by me in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings in the deep bantamweight division.
Meshew: Holy sin on a biscuit, this card is baaaad! Sorry, but I just now looked at the whole thing to find my answer for this question and, uh, let’s hope the main event stays intact because without it, no one is buying this thing.
Anyway, Mike picked the one legitimately good fight on the prelims to talk about so since I can’t pick that one, give me Jim Miller vs. Damon Jackson.
Miller is far and away the UFC leader in fights given that he’s still competing and the next closest person to him who is still active is Rafael dos Anjos, who is eight fights back and not really competing anymore. It’s always fun to watch MMA’s Cal Ripken continue his quite possibly unbreakable record.
Plus, Jackson is the perfect opponent for Miller: he’s solid but beatable, seems to be declining, and most importantly he’s fun. Jackson may not be a world-beater, but he gives fans their money’s worth just about every time out, and couple that with Miller’s own violent proclivities, and we got ourselves a stew going.
Lee: thisisstillmyboy.gif
Chris Weidman, I just can’t quit you. My fascination with “The All-American” goes all the way back to the start of the 2010s, when the highly touted Serra-Longo product went on an undefeated run through the middleweight division en route to a shocking upset of Anderson Silva that few expected. I can proudly say I was one of those few as in a rare moment of prescience, I picked Weidman to dethrone Silva (the standup KO was unbelievably shocking, though).
Yes, it’s been a rocky road since Weidman’s champion days ended and he’s unlikely to come close to those heights again. And yes, this fight with Eryk Anders is incredibly middleweighty, to the point that I can completely understand why they didn’t dare have this open the main card. Even so, I’ve never missed any of Weidman’s UFC fights, and I plan to be locked for No. 20.
A lotta folks will have their butts in their seats before the main card to see Weidman, such is the pull the native New Yorker still has. Add in the fact this is a favorable matchup for him and you have the recipe for this maybe being the feel-good moment of the night (assuming Miocic doesn’t KO Jones).