Miocic had hoped to fight Jones in July, but that isn’t happening any more. Now, the former Heavyweight champion is throwing some shade Jones’ way.
Stipe Miocic is getting impatient waiting for a “super” fight with Jon Jones to come together.
After Jones ran through Ciryl Gane in little more than two minutes at UFC 285 last month (watch highlights), Miocic called him out for July. The Light Heavyweight G.O.A.T. and current Heavyweight champion versus the Heavyweight champion with the most title defenses? For the big International Fight Week card in Las Vegas?
Unfortunately, UFC, Jones and Miocic all have to sign up as well to make this a reality. We don’t know who passed on it, but it’s become clear that Jones vs. Miocic won’t be headlining UFC 290 in July. That card will instead be headlined by a pair of title fights: Alexander Volkanovski vs. Yair Rodriguez to unify the Featherweight titles, and Brandon Moreno vs. Alexandre Pantoja for the Flyweight title.
“I’ve seen several tweets talking about Jones vs. Miocic at UFC 290 in July,” ESPN’s Marc Raimondi wrote on Twitter. “That’s still the fight all parties want next, but it won’t happen in July and hasn’t really been discussed for July in a while. Much more likely now for the fall.”
UFC President, Dana White, had an interesting response when asked about Jones on the Pat McAffee Show.
“Jon Jones goes back underground … ‘Let me know when the Stipe fight is done,’” White said of his heavyweight champ. “He is a fascinating, talented artist to deal with. I haven’t heard a word out of him. Poof! Gone! He’s back in New Mexico doing whatever he does. He’s shooting guns, he’s got German Shepherds, he’s doing his thing.”
“Weird… because last month you said I was the one running, Jonny Bones,” Stipe Miocic wrote on Twitter regarding the clip. “If anyone needs me, I’ll be in the gym.”
If anyone needs me, I’ll be in the gym.
— Stipe Miocic (@stipemiocic) April 13, 2023
Miocic is referring to some tweets from “Bones” that came pretty hard at him.
“Yo Stipe Miocic, only you the UFC and I know the truth,” Jones wrote. “You dodged me all of 2022 – July, September & December. Now I’m hearing rumors that we may not be fighting this July. Bro it’s simple, either you believe in yourself or you don’t. Either you want this challenge or you don’t. Stop wasting everyone’s time.”
So, who knows why the Jones vs. Miocic fight hasn’t come together for July. White did make it clear that he’d get it done, though.
“I love making the big fights, making fights that should happen when they’re supposed to happen,” he told Pat McAffee. “In the history of the company, since I’ve been here, right? Twenty two, twenty three years or whatever it is. There’s only two fights we weren’t able to make: the Fedor fight with Fedor Emelianenko against Brock Lesnar, and then a Francis Ngannou fight. Not a bad record … and I’ll take it.”