UFC 309 saw Jon Jones defeat Stipe Miocic at Madison Square Garden, retaining his heavyweight title in a lackluster event that marked Miocic’s retirement and left Jones’s future uncertain, with discussions surrounding potential fights against Tom Aspinall or Alex Pereira.
UFC 309 is in the books, and Jon Jones finally got his win over Stipe Miocic.
This past Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Jones stopped Miocic in a bout nearly two years in the making, retaining his heavyweight title. In the aftermath, Miocic retired from the sport while Jones left his future up in the air.
So with so much to talk about plus more, let’s gather the MMA Fighting brain trust to discuss everything that happened at UFC 309.
1. What is your blurb review of UFC 309?
Heck: Underwhelming, but still gave us a lot to talk about at the same time. Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic was exactly what I expected it to be — maybe even worse than I drew it up in my mind — while the co-main event was one-way traffic through the first 20-plus minutes until wild man Michael Chandler nearly pulled off one of the most insane comebacks ever.
There’s also a lot of questions about Bo Nickal moving forward, and Mauricio Ruffy is fun as hell. Fun moments, certainly, but I’m glad this weekend of fights is officially behind us.
Lee: A card that looked meh on paper, turned out meh in practice. The main event clash of legends turned out to be way, way, way past its best before date, Bo Nickal fell flat despite remaining undefeated, and it felt like nothing of consequence happened.
But hey, Oliveira vs. Chandler 2 was pretty fun!
Meshew: To paraphrase Dennis Green, it was what we thought it was!
Everyone other than the most gullible of rubes knew that Jones vs. Miocic was a vanity project with minimal chance of being competitive and that’s exactly what we got. Stipe looked better than Mike Tyson, but still quite old, and so even though Jones himself looked a bit past his prime, it was a woeful mismatch. At least it’s over now, and we can move on to actually meaningful bouts.
Martin: Arguably one of the most lackluster pay-per-views of the year.
It wasn’t exactly a stacked card because anytime you’ve got a proven draw like Jon Jones at the top, where he’s also earning a hefty payday, the UFC doesn’t typically load the undercard with the biggest names. But even by those standards, the fights at UFC 309 failed to deliver. That’s also considering the Fight of the Night between Charles Oliveira and Michael Chandler didn’t really get crazy until the final five minutes. The main event played out as many suspected it would, with Jones being the GOAT, and Miocic looking every bit like he’s 42 years old and returning from a three-plus year long layoff.
2. Keep it short: Is Jon Jones going to fight Tom Aspinall?
Heck: Nope. And guess what? That’s OK.
Unfortunately for Jon Jones, he was about 35 media appearances too late about his honest view of the situation. Jon is prize fighting, and has every right to do so. He plans to give the UFC his financial “demand” to face Tom Aspinall, and it’s probably the biggest singular pay day in UFC history. My guess is it will take in the $35-40 million (could be more) range for Jon to face Aspinall, and to be clear, I do not blame him one bit for the ask. He’s earned it.
The problem is, the UFC won’t pay that, and they absolutely, positively do not need to. Those three letters are the money makers, and no singular fighter will ever again be bigger than them.
In the end, everybody will get some semblance of what they want: Jones can fight Alex Pereira in a massive fight that will cost the UFC less to make but has tremendous financial upside, and Aspinall can be the heavyweight champion of the world to keep this division moving forward. Jones vs. Pereira can happen, but Jones will need to vacate — and he has said he would. And to be as fair as we can be, if Pereira is to accept that fight, he should vacate his belt as well.
Martin: No*
But why is there an asterisk there you ask? Because Jones is almost certainly setting this up to let the UFC take the fall for the fight not happening. By constantly downplaying his interest in facing Aspinall unless the UFC pays him “f*ck you money” — as he put it so eloquently quoting the great Bobby Axelrod — the responsibility now falls on the promotion to make it happen. If the UFC doesn’t back up the Brinks truck, Jones can easily say he would have fought Aspinall but Dana White just wouldn’t pay him what he’s worth.
*And to a certain extent, he’s probably right.
So just like last time around with Francis Ngannou fight story will turn into blame game with Jones riding off into sunset & Aspinall facing Ciryl Gane sometime in ’25.