Jon Jones vs Stipe Miocic Prediction: Last Party of the Seasoned Champ

Jon Jones will defend his title against Stipe Miocic in the early morning hours of November 17th. This fight, in the heavyweight division, is the main event at UFC 309. 

It could well be the last bout of each of their careers, which makes it even more significant. It looks like Jon Jones is just trolling fans by naming anyone but Tom Aspinall as his possible future opponent. He's actually got Alex Pereira, Derrick Lewis, and even Jamal Hill on his list.

Jon Jones is an excellent fighter who has never lost a match in his impressive career. He does have one defeat, but that was due to an illegal punch, and it looks like that will be overturned soon. He's set an incredible number of records, but we think the most significant one is the number of wins in title fights – he's got fifteen of them, while Khabib Nurmagomedov, for example, has only got three). At the same time, Jones was up against the best of the best. In 2020, he defended his featherweight title again and then spent three years focusing on his personal challenges. John returned in the spring of 2023, already in the heavyweight division. He didn't face much resistance from Cyril Gane, who had his sights set on the title. John finished the fight in a couple of minutes and became the champion.

The UFC says Miocic is the best heavyweight ever, but we believe Fedor Emelianenko might disagree. Even so, Stipe is a great addition to the league and still holds the eighth spot in the rankings, even though he hasn't fought since March 2021. Miocic became champion in 2016 and held the title with little interruption until he lost to Francis Ngannou. He also incidentally set a heavyweight division record with four successful defenses. He wins more often by knockout and has beaten some pretty big guys, including Daniel Cormier (twice), Francis Ngannou (back in 2018), Alistair Overeem, and many more.

He's a legendary fighter, no doubt, but he's 42 years old, hasn't fought in a very long time, and went down hard in his last fight. This is all the stuff that's got his fans worried ahead of his fight with Jones. It's important to remember that training and fighting are two different things. Having the right fight practice, especially for a major event, is essential.

I think this will be Miocic's last hurrah. That might be a different story if he wins the fight. I'm not too optimistic about that. It's not that it's an uncompetitive fight. But nobody has challenged Jones on his turf for a long time. I don't think Miocic will do it this time, either. He'll put up a fight, but he'll start to struggle by the third round.

Kamil Gadzhiev

Frankly, the confrontation between two legends isn't really about sports value. Stipe Miocic, who has returned from retirement, is certainly not competition. And if the league wants to claim otherwise, they just need to promote this fight as much as possible to squeeze the last out of the career-ending fighters.

In terms of the fight, Jon Jones will quickly tire Miocic's legs with his long limbs, quick footwork, and sharp reflexes. He'll then take him down and punch hard. That's the most likely scenario. Stipe simply has nothing to offer other than impressive boxing.