The feud between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic seems to finally be heating up, even if it is a one-sided one for now.
Despite almost two years of build-up, there seemed to be minimal needle between Jones and Miocic ahead of their UFC 309 main event showdown. But it seems that the heavyweight champion has created some sort of personal beef as the days tick down towards their meeting.
And he took it to a new level on Thursday night in New York as the pair finally came head-to-head for the first time since agreeing to fight early last year. The two-time former champion offered his hand before the photo op, but Jones had other ideas and refused.
Jon Jones claims Stipe Miocic mentioned his children during fight build-up
After an intense press conference at the Theater in Madison Square Garden on Thursday night, Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic were finally able to come face-to-face. The pair have been angling for a fight for years, but this was their first official face-off just days out from their actual fight.
For fights where the competitors haven’t had much of a feud, it’s generally no more than a photo op as they square up. However, Jones didn’t see it that way, and refused to accept his rival’s offer for a hand shake as they came head-to-head.
But perhaps an even more bizarre moment came when Jones told him “Don’t ever mention my kids again.” The Cleveland native seemed completely caught off guard by the veiled threat, quickly confirming that “I’ve never mentioned your kids,” as Jones was turning away.
Jon Jones has been building a one-sided feud with Stipe Miocic ahead of UFC 309
This effort to build something of a bad blood between the pair has seemingly been an effort in vain from Jones. It started when he claimed that Miocic was attempting to imitate his fighting style by bringing in black fighters in a bizarre social media post.
And it continued when he opted to take offence at an off-handed comment that the former champion made during their UFC Countdown documentary. Miocic, in a flippant moment, told Jones “Bring it on b****,” which seemingly really angered the former light-heavyweight star.
“Hiring black fighters to mimic me will not help you Stipe,” Jones wrote in an outlandish post to his X, formerly Twitter, account. “And you shouldn’t have called me a b****, the disrespect wasn’t necessary. Let’s play.”
He explained on that to the UFC Embedded cameras later, telling them: “So I’m watching the Countdown with some friends, teammates and family. I thought it went really well, I thought we represented ourselves well as gentlemen and vey experienced martial artists.
“Then at the end Stipe says ‘bring it on b****’. F***ing bring it on? I didn’t think that was necessary, This is the fight game, if he thinks I’m a b*** he has to back that up, that’s a lot of pressure. So we’ll see who the b*** is.”
Stipe Miocic branded Jon Jones’ efforts at building rivalry ‘comical’
However, none of it seems to have gotten to Miocic, who is a famously affable and personable fighter. The bout will be his first since being viciously knocked out by Francis Ngannou to lose the belt in 2021, and he is a big underdog after over three years out of action.
And it doesn’t appear that he is taking much notice of what Jones is doing to make the fight personal, telling the press at yesterday’s media day: “I keep talking about that.
“He was literally telling everyone he was going to beat my a**. I’m almost positive. Did he not say that before [the b**** comment was made]? Sorry. Talk s*** about me but whatever.”
As for the racial aspect, Miocic noted that the sparring partners he was referring to are his regular teammates, and that they aren’t even paid to be in his camp: “That was bulls*** because they’re my teammates. They’re like, ‘We’re not getting paid?’ Apparently, I’m hiring people, too. Whatever.”
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