Off the back of his spectacular vacant heavyweight championship victory at UFC 285 last weekend, former light heavyweight kingpin, Jon Jones has opened as quite the massive betting favorite to defeat former two-time heavyweight best, Stipe Miocic, ahead of a targeted UFC 290 clash in July.
Jones, the newly-minted undisputed heavyweight champion, headlined UFC 285 last Saturday in Las Vegas, Nevada against former interim division champion, Ciryl Gane – clinching the crown in a stunning opening round guillotine choke victory.
Rallying after suffering an inadvertent groin strike in the opening exchanges against the Frenchman, Jones would then take Gane to the Octagon canvas successfully, before working his way to the fence.
Hand-fighting briefly, Jones then locked up a taut guillotine choke on the MMA Factory Paris staple – forcing a rather timely submission from the former interim gold holder.
And in the immediate aftermath of the triumph, Jones, now a two-time undisputed champion during his tenure with the UFC, was floated for an International Fight Week with the above-mentioned, Miocic in July atop a UFC 290 pay-per-view card by organization leader, Dana White.
Whilst predicting a victory of his own over Jones, opening markets have placed the new champion as quite the sizeable betting favorite over Miocic, with the Endicott native placed as high as a -355 favorite. As for the former titleholder, he has opened as a notable betting underdog at +290. Picking Jones – even as part of a 1xBet, could likely see you land some notable returns on the consensus greatest fighter of all time.
Sidelined since UFC 260 back in 2021, Miocic headlined a UFC Apex facility card against Cameroonian knockout artist and former division kingpin, Francis Ngannou in the pair’s title rematch – dropping his place atop the division in a spectacular one-punch second round KO loss.
First striking gold back in 2016 in Brazil, Miocic stopped Fabricio Werdum on enemy territory, before defeating Alistair Overeem, Junior dos Santos, and the aforenoted, Ngannou during his first reign as champion. Despite his knockout loss to Ngannou, Miocic has since retained his rank as the #1 division challenger – now seated below just Jones.
A former two-time light heavyweight gold holder to boot, Jones, a former Jackson-Wink MMA staple, clinched the title for a second time with a rematch win over Alexander Gustafsson.
And in three successful title defenses before his heavyweight division leap, Jones would defeat the trio of Anthony Smith, Thiago Santos, and Dominick Reyes in decision wins. Following his February 2020 debated judging win over Reyes, Jones vacated his light heavyweight crown in August of that year.
Once more opening as a betting favorite in a potential fight with Miocic, Jones, in fact, opened as quite the significant betting underdog ahead of his fight with Gane last weekend – before comfortably closing as a betting favorite en route to his submission win to land undisputed heavyweight spoils. Jones had not opened as a betting underdog since his sophomore Octagon appearance against the late, Stephan Bonner back in 2009.