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It’s no secret the general MMA fanbase has been less than enthusedwith the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s plans for its heavyweighttitle. Rather than acquiescing to the fans’ desires to see interimchampion TomAspinall challenge incumbent titleholder Jon Jones forthe undisputed heavyweight crown, the organization is dead set onJones defending his belt against StipeMiocic.
The organization isn’t alone in that decision, though I’m onlyreferring to a single person in that sentiment. Jones has beeninsistent that he defends his title against Miocic, a two-timechampion. On paper, it would appear to be a generational clash.Jones, considered by many to the be the sport’s greatest ofall-time regardless of weight class, would take on the man whommany believe is the greatest heavyweight in the history of thesport. It should take minimal promotion to sell this to fans,right?
Under different circ*mstances, that would be true. Instead, Joneshas fought a total of 124 seconds over the last four and a halfyears, and it will have been over three and a half years sinceMiocic stepped into the Octagon if the two men collide at UFC 309in November. Given that the sports world is very much awhat-have-you-done-for-me-lately place, neither Jones nor Miocichas done much for fans, nullifying the excitement that should bethere.
It’s because of the slated participants that the enthusiasm isdead. Jones decided he didn’t want to defend his light heavyweighttitle anymore around the middle of 2020, allowing himself to bestripped of the championship in a supposed move up to theheavyweight division. Rather than jump right into the heavyweighttitle picture, Jones waited. Not that he wouldn’t have had to waitsome in the first place. Miocic was the champion when Jonessurrendered the belt and was destined to have a rematch withFrancisNgannou. Jones would have to wait for the outcome of thatshowdown. Once it happened—and once Miocic lost the belt toNgannou—Jones wasn’t exactly eager to jump off the sidelines.
This is hardly an argument that Jones was scared to fight Ngannou.Rather, it’s an argument that Jones has been interested inprotecting his “undefeated” record as much as possible, given thatfew count his disqualification loss to Matt Hamillas a legitimate defeat. A loss isn’t likely to do much to tarnishhis legacy; FedorEmelianenko is still considered an all-time great despiteseveral losses in the twilight of his career. Nevertheless, Jonesdoes appear to be very protective of his record as his career windsdown, not unlike FloydMayweather Jr. Thus, after Ngannou’s unceremonious exit fromthe UFC, Jones saw a favorable matchup in Ciryl Ganefor the title and took advantage, winning the heavyweightchampionship at UFC 285 in March 2023.
As for Miocic, he has been insistent that he’s only fighting forthe title. While I do believe he had a fair argument for animmediate rematch with Ngannou given that he won the first matchupbetween the two, the UFC didn’t want to go in that direction.Miocic decided he would play the waiting game, a game that is notwithout risk. When Jones won the title and labeled Miocic as hisnext opponent, it looked like his gamble had paid off. The two werescheduled to collide at UFC 295 at Madison Square Garden inNovember 2023.
Had the fight happened as planned, the present backlash would havebeen nonexistent. Jones and Miocic would have done the damn thing,and the heavyweight division would most likely be moving along inone form or another. Instead, Jones tore his pectoral muscle, andrather than have Miocic fight a replacement for the interim title,Aspinall and SergeiPavlovich were plucked to square off against one another. Itwas a true unstoppable-force-meeting-an-immovable-object contest,as they had blasted through each of their opponents whenever theirappendages weren’t giving out on them.
After Aspinall proved to be the truly unstoppable object bydisposing of Pavlovich in 69 seconds, he then avenged his lone UFCloss when he plowed through CurtisBlaydes in a minute flat. That proved to be Aspinall’s seventhwin since Miocic last won a fight. To put it this way, Aspinall haswon seven times more fights than these two all-time greats havecombined in the last four years. If they weren’t considered activefighters, that wouldn’t be a problem. Given that they are activefighters, it’s a major issue in a what-have-you-done-for-me-latelybusiness.
This isn’t meant to disparage the legacies of Jones or Miocic. It’smerely a matter of fact. The truth of the matter is Jones andMiocic have given the fans a big middle finger. I won’t say whetherit was done purposefully, as I can’t do so with certainty, but likeany sport, the fight game is more entertainment business thananything else. If people aren’t entertained, they won’t care who isthe best in any athletic venture. Over the last several years,Jones and Miocic haven’t given a care to entertaining those whothey expect to fork over their hard-earned money for what they hopewill be the biggest payday of their careers.
That isn’t to say I don’t understand their stances. The fight gameis hard on the brain and the body. There are only so many fights intheir bodies before they give out. They want to be selective oftheir paydays. With that said, how much has Miocic made fightingover the last three and a half years? Given that he hasn’t fought,he hasn’t made anything. It has been long enough that Miocic hasn’tfought a single person on the active roster; all his previousopponents either retired or are fighting in other organizations.He’s now 42, has zero wins over the last four years and was never aparticularly endearing figure to fans in the first place. It isn’thard to see why fans don’t care to see him fight when they’ve seenAspinall obliterate everything in his way the last severalyears.
Every time a fighter steps into the cage, he is taking a risk—Iwill never say otherwise—but to say there is no risk in steppingaside and waiting for what one believes he deserves is ludicrous.Opinions are going to vary over what is deserved for each fighter,and more opinions are going to sour if they haven’t seen thatfighter perform recently. By not throwing the fans a bone andreminding them of who he is, Miocic has made himself one of themore reviled members of the roster. It’s unfortunate, given thatMiocic is a stand-up guy.
Had Miocic played the game some—he could have taken a fight withBlaydes or with even someone more favorable, such as DerrickLewis—he could have had enough of an argument to fend off theall the hate he is currently receiving. As much as I dislike allthe hate Miocic is getting, I happen to agree with the majority:Jones should be fighting Aspinall next.
After Aspinall disposed of Blaydes, DanielCormier brought up an excellent point. When World WrestlingEntertainment announced it was going to do Roman Reigns vs. TheRock in the WrestleMania 40 main event, there was severe fanbacklash. The WWE backtracked and returned it to what the fans wereoriginally getting, with Reigns defending against Cody Rhodes. Thebeloved Rhodes had been present for the entirety of the year, weekin and week out. He was the one the fans wanted to see finish thestoryline. Every aspect of this fight matches up with that. Theuncrowned upstarts who have answered the call at every opportunity(Rhodes and Aspinall). The part-time champions who have alreadyachieved legendary status (Reigns and Jones). The inactive legendsreturning to the chagrin of the fans (The Rock and Miocic). If UFCPresident DanaWhite wants to maximize the return on UFC 309, he needs to givethe fans what they want: Jones vs. Aspinall.
