Jon
Jones believes the masses are underestimating Stipe
Miocic heading into their heavyweight title bout at UFC
295.
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Miocic has not fought since March 2021, when he relinquished the
heavyweight crown to Francis
Ngannou in a second-round knockout loss at UFC 260. That
layoff, along with Miocic’s age — he recently turned 41 — make him
the underdog against Jones, who claimed the vacant strap with a
quick submission of Ciryl Gane
at UFC 285.
“Stipe has balls. He has courage,” Jones said on the OverDogs podcast
podcast. “He’s not the youngest fighter, but that is a man. That is
a man. I’m not the youngest either. In sports’ years, I’m over the
hill, that’s for sure. Especially in combat sports. Stipe, he’s an
honorable dude, and I know that he’s a man at the end of the day,
and I know that he wants this fight. Everyone else thinks that his
back’s against the wall and this is a David and Goliath situation
for him. I disagree.
“I think Stipe is a very capable athlete and I think I owe it to
Stipe to give him that chance to fight the best fighter ever. And I
think Stipe owes it to me to give me a chance to fight the greatest
heavyweight ever. I think we owe it to each other. I feel like we
both would feel like we have unfinished business if we walked away
not competing against each other. I understand where Stipe is at,
just being looked past by a lot of people, and I respect him even
more for training his ass off. I know that in his camp, he expects
to win, so I respect him.”
Though nothing is set in stone, Jones has indicated that he could
retire from the sport after facing Miocic, who has the most
heavyweight title defenses in UFC history. That would disappoint
more than a few people, as many would like to see “Bones” face the
likes of Tom
Aspinall and Sergei
Pavlovich. Jones admits that while he is impresssed by the
likes of Aspinall and Pavlovich, they don’t currently have the name
value he is seeking at this point in his career.
“As far as these younger fighters, I look at guys like Aspinall and
I look at guys like Sergei, dude, they’re amazing,” Jones said.
“Don’t get me wrong, these guys are amazing. They’re starching
people in the first round. But as I get older, I have to look at it
as a business and not just speak out of pride, I have to speak out
of my legacy and as a business. If the hardcore fans know who these
guys are, that’s great, but at the end of the day, I need to fight
people that the mainstream public is going to be excited about,
because there’s always going to be this new challenge that’s
younger than you and everyone is going to want to see if you can do
it one more time. It is what it is.”