NEW YORK — Combat sports fans love a dominant heavyweight champ. And Jon Jones loves to be loved.
The UFC heavyweight champion protected his spot at the apex of mixed martial arts on Saturday night and moved to endear some more fans with a dominant win over Stipe Miocic, delivering a roundhouse kick to Miocic’s gut with his left leg that crumbled Miocic to the mat in the third round.
Really, the kick punctuated an already decisive performance. Miocic took tremendous punishment in Round 3 already, including a flush 1-2 combination, another kick and another hard left cross moments before the final roundhouse.
“HOW GOOD IS JONNY BONES?”@JonnyBones | #UFC309 pic.twitter.com/RFUsUppQfz
— UFC (@ufc) November 17, 2024
And with that, Jones — the legend with a problematic history that has often alienated him from fans — was well primed to embrace the roar of Madison Square Garden. After the bout was stopped, he shimmied for President-elect Donald Trump, who sat at the side of the octagon in his first major public sporting event since winning election to a second term.
“I’m proud to be a great American champion,” Jones said after thanking Trump for attending, the culmination of a night rife with political pageantry. “I’m proud to be a Christian American champion.”
He then told fans that his contemplations about retirement had vanished, and that he’s open to options for his next fight – something of a turnabout given how dug in he had seemed about his future plans in the leadup to this fight, eschewing some calls to fight Tom Aspinall, the interim heavyweight champion. Aspinall was a substitute fighter for Saturday night, had either Jones or Miocic been unable to roll. He sat near the cage and played to the crowd briefly by pulling down his dark sunglasses to stare into a camera before the fight.
“Maybe I will not retire,” Jones told commentator Joe Rogan with a smirk that got the crowd off its feet. “I have some conversations to have with (UFC president Dana White and Chief Business Officer Hunter Campbell), if everything goes right, maybe you guys have much more to see.”
After the spectacle, Jones was in little rush to leave. He walked around the cage apron before re-entering to do a quick salsa dance, point to the crowd, and take photos as “Greatest of All Time” by LL Cool J blared.
The champ is here indeed. Jon Jones’ GOAT resume grows longer, and he’s in no rush to leave pic.twitter.com/vqjpCLcGYh
— Mark Puleo (@ByMarkPuleo) November 17, 2024
In the fight, Jones was dominant from start to finish, like he has been for much of his career. He slammed Miocic to the canvas in the first round with a trip so stiff it shook the media tables 15 feet away. From there, he rained elbows down on the challenger as his Super Bowl-winning brothers stood in awe.
Miocic, somehow, survived the round and found morsels of success in the stand-up that kept Jones from rushing in for another takedown. But that only lasted until the midpoint of the third, when Jones split Miocic open with a starching straight and then finished the fight two minutes later with the spinning heel kick.
Miocic stayed curled against the fence for minutes in visible agony as doctors tended to his cuts. Afterward, he told Rogan the fight was his last. “I’m done,” he said. At 42, he was the oldest fighter to contend for the heavyweight title since Randy Couture in 2008.
For Jones, the screams haven’t always been positive. His career has been just as rocky as historic. He has multiple failed drug tests and multiple felony arrests, which left Jones the first UFC champion in history to be stripped of his belt three times.
White had come to see Jones as unreliable, but a bankable draw nonetheless. Before Saturday’s fight, White told The Athletic he once told the company’s previous owner Lorenzo Fertitta that Jones wasn’t a fighter the company could be built around.
“It’s not like Jon Jones and I have had this incredible relationship throughout his career,” White said previously. “It’s been the exact opposite.”
Despite that, in his 17th career title fight, Jones walked out with the title for the 17th time, extending his record for most title fight wins in UFC history. His only non-win in a title fight came in 2017 when Jones’ knockout of Daniel Cormier was overturned following a positive steroid test.
In the co-main event, Charles Oliveira defeated Michael Chandler after one of the most thrilling fifth rounds possible. Oliveira controlled Chandler for the first four rounds, backpacking the American much to the anxiety of Chandler’s cornermen, which included former UFC welterweight champ Robbie Lawler.
As Lawler’s face grew redder from yelling out to his training partner, Chandler stayed mousetrapped on the opposite side of the cage, too far away to hear.
That all changed in the fifth as Chandler dropped Oliveira, then slammed Oliveira on his back twice in a move that was all show for the sake of the crowd. Oliveira took the easy decision.
Chandler back slams Oliveira in the fifth round of their co-main event bout Saturday night. (Photo: Chris Unger / Zuffa LLC)
For Chandler, the defeat is bitter after he spent the past two years inactive waiting for a promised bout with Conor McGregor. That fight never materialized after McGregor pulled out of their June date with an injury, and Chandler decided to risk his money fight positioning for a chance to improve his championship standing.
But despite the loss, Chandler’s megafight prospects may not be dimmed.
The fans, Trump included, rewarded his body slams with an ear-splitting standing ovation. Chandler wasted no time afterward calling out McGregor yet again, telling the former two-division champ: “Get your house back in order.”
“We wonder where you’ve been, Conor,” Chandler added.
On the opposite end of the career spectrum, Bo Nickal continued his progression toward stardom with his seventh straight win to open his career, but his lackluster fight might have slightly slowed that sprint toward the title picture.
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(Top photo: Chris Unger / Zuffa LLC)
