Biggest Winners (And Loser) From UFC 309 | UFC Betting Sites

UFC 309: Jones v Miocic — Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

UFC 309 went down last night (Sat., Nov. 16, 2024), which saw Jon Jones defend his Heavyweight title by knocking out Stipe Miocic in the third round of their headlining bout inside Madison Square Garden in New York City (see it again here). In the co-main event, Charles Oliveira secured his second win over Michael Chandler in another entertaining Lightweight affair (highlights).

Biggest Winner: Jon Jones

Is this one really a surprise? “Bones” returned after another lengthy layoff to earn his first-ever 265-pound title defense by ending Miocic’s MMA career rather violently in the third round. While Jones himself said he could have done much better — and he probably could have — it was still a one-sided win for the former Light Heavyweight champion. Afterward, Jones revealed that he had no plans to retire anytime soon, meaning that a title unification bout against Tom Aspinall or a mega-fight against current 205-pound king, Alex Pereira, awaits us in 2025.

Runner Up: Charles Oliveira

“Do Bronx” put himself right back in the thick of the championship picture at 155 pounds by putting on a dominant performance against Chandler and securing his second straight win over the former Bellator MMA Lightweight champion. For the first four rounds. Oliveira had his way with Chandler, before running into some trouble in the fifth and final round. Eventually, Oliveira reversed his fortune in the final frame to end the round in a dominant position to take home the unanimous decision victory. With current 155-pound champion, Islam Makhachev, possiblly defending his belt against Arman Tsarukyan in early 2025, Oliveira will be an interested observe in the outcome because he could be next.

Biggest Loser: Paul Craig

“Bearjew” had a golden opportunity to end the hype of UFC’s new potential golden goose in Bo Nickal, and he came up flat. And it wasn’t because Nickal out-wrestled him as he has done to all of his other foes. On the contrary, the reason why Craig dropped the ball is because Nickal actually played the striking game for 15 minutes without going for a single takedown all night. That was tee’d up perfectly for Craig to lay it all on the line and out-strike a man who barely got into MMA a little over two years ago. Instead, Craig looked like a deer caught in the headlights because he froze and didn’t let his hands fly. To make matters worse he kept getting tagged by the same left hand all night and didn’t make adjustments to counter it. It was a mediocre kickboxing match between both men, which prompted several boo birds. To top it all off, Craig’s loss is his third straight, dropping him to 1-5 in his last six UFC fights.

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