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Following his first-round submission of Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 this past March, Jon Jones shifted his focus to his next opponent: Stipe Miocic. The ex-UFC heavyweight champion was in attendance when Jones expressed interest in him as his first defense.
“Y’all want to see me beat up Stipe?,” said Jones in his post-fight interview. “One thing I know about the UFC is we give the fans what they want to see. Stipe Miocic, I hope you’re training, my guy. You’re the greatest heavyweight of all time, and that’s what I want. I want you. Real bad.”
Jones and Miocic were interested, and so was UFC president Dana White, who was hoping to schedule the fight in July. That was until ‘Bones’ said he was hearing rumors that his opponent would not return by then, so their fight was postponed. Miocic responded, dispelling the rumors and promising Jones they would fight in July. Since then, the most recent update on Jones vs. Miocic we have received was from White, who said the promotion was now hoping to schedule it for November.
Daniel Cormier concerned over Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic
As we continue to get further and further away from a potential date, ex-UFC champion Daniel Cormier is concerned the fight may not happen.
“It just feels like we’re going to miss this one, too, and that’s unfortunate,” said Cormier on his official YouTube channel. “Because we just missed Francis Ngannou vs. Jon Jones — one that we have wanted for a long time. Now we got Jon Jones talking to Tyson Fury, which Dana said, ‘Hey, we’ll make it happen.’ Dana said it. But now we got those guys talking, Tyson Fury and Jon Jones, and for the record, Tyson Fury in a full-on fight with Jon Jones has no chance. And that’s no knock on Fury.
“In a singular skill set with boxing gloves, Tyson Fury will be Jon Jones every day of the week. But, if by chance, they ever go into a full-on fight, Fury has about as much of a chance as a guy walking into a convenience store at the end of your block to beat Jon Jones in a free fight. It’s not going to happen.”
Lost in the Jon Jones vs. Tyson Fury discourse is Stipe Miocic, who has not fought since his second-round KO loss to Francis Ngannou two years ago. Though his return is one of the most highly anticipated, Cormier worries that interest around it could dissipate unless Miocic gets the Jones fight scheduled.
For the former two-division UFC champion, he wants to avoid a similar scenario where we lose another ‘big‘ fight.
“It’s exactly what happened whenever Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones was the talk of the town and all of a sudden it started to shift,” said Cormier. “Because we as humans have short attention spans. There’s something that way, I look and I’m gone. We have got to, guys, Stipe Miocic and Jon Jones, we got to make this happen. Otherwise, we’re going to miss out on another one. This is too big of a fight to let it fall by the wayside.
“I don’t know what’s happening right now on the backend that’s not allowing for this to come together, but it needs to come together for the sake of the heavyweight division. Because right now, we can’t afford to have Jones missing for as long as he was last time or even a fraction of that.”
Is Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic in jeopardy?
According to UFC veteran Chael Sonnen, there is cause for concern regarding Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic. During an appearance on Thiccc Boy, Sonnen claimed another opponent was being pursued for the newly crowned UFC heavyweight champion.
“I’m hearing strong rumors that Stipe and Jones is going to go up in flames and that Sergei Pavlovich vs. Jones is happening in August,” said Sonnen. “I’m hearing strong rumors on that. Strong enough that I can tell you that’s at least being pursued. I don’t know where they are in agreeing, but that’s at least being pursued. And if you did have partners in Australia, you promised them ‘Izzy’ [Israel Adesanya] and you said, ‘Look, I can’t deliver but I can bring you Jones and Pavlovich, are we good?’ They’d probably say, ‘Yeah, we’re good.’”
Whether Jones vs. Miocic has gone ‘up in flames’ remains to be seen.
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