Stipe
Miocic claims he wasn’t offered an alternative fight when
scheduled opponent Jon Jones
pulled out of UFC
295.
Advertisement
Jones (27-1) was slated to defend his heavyweight title against
Miocic (20-4) in the main event at UFC 295 on Nov. 11 at Madison
Square Garden. However, “Bones” was forced out of the card after
sustaining a pectoral muscle tear during a grappling session hardly
two weeks away from fight night.
An interim heavyweight title matchup between Tom
Aspinall and Sergei
Pavlovich has been added to the card as the co-main event.
Meanwhile, the original co-main, a light heavyweight title clash
between Jiri
Prochazka and Alex
Pereira, has been bumped up to the main-event slot.
While Jones was forced out of the card due to an injury, Miocic saw
himself removed due to no fault of his own. The former UFC
heavyweight champ, who hasn’t fought since losing his strap to
Francis
Ngannou in March 2021, was expectedly disheartened upon hearing
the news.
“How did I feel when I woke up today? Like I got kicked in the
nuts,” Miocic said in a video on his OnlyFans account. “In the
morning, I woke up to my phone vibrating. It was dark, I had my son
on top of me, trying to move and get my phone. I finally got my
phone and had a text message from my manager saying my fight was
off. I couldn’t sleep the rest of the night.”
Asked if Miocic had been offered a replacement, Dana White said an
interim title clash offer
would be disrespectful to the former champ. Instead, the UFC
CEO plans on rebooking the fight with Jones sometime next year.
Miocic confirmed that being removed from the card wasn’t his
choice. However, the 41-year-old doesn’t exactly have a problem
with it, as the Jones matchup remains his primary focus.
“I don’t know why I didn’t get picked, which is fine,” Miocic said.
“I understand they have a direction they want to go. I’m OK with
that. Every guy in the division is tough. I definitely want to
fight the biggest fish, which is Jon Jones. It
wasn’t my choice, it was theirs. Listen, everything happens for a
reason. The fight being canceled, it sucks. No question about it.
Unfortunately, that’s just the game we’re in. It happens. Like I
said, I hope he’s okay. You want to be the best; you’ve got to beat
the best. I want that belt back. It’s my belt. It’s going to
happen.”