"He's like the revamped version of Mike Tyson" - Former champ feels Jon Jones deliberately delayed finishing Stipe Miocic at UFC 309
UFC heavyweight champion and consensus MMA GOAT Jon Jones made a successful defense of his title against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 last weekend. In front of a sold-out crowd at the iconic Madison Square Garden, 'Bones' dominated the most decorated UFC heavyweight champion of all time, Stipe Miocic.
After pulling off a spotless performance across the first two rounds, Jones put Miocic away with a perfectly placed spinning backkick. Fans, analysts, and fellow fighters uploaded reaction videos left and right, picking their jaws off the floor as Jones reminded the world who is the greatest.
Former UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling dropped his recap of UFC 309, particularly analyzing Jones' performance that night. To 'Funkmaster', 'Bones' was like a cat toying with a mouse before ultimately devouring it, saying:
"Now, this is my hot take. After the first round, he [Jones] put a beating on Stipe [Miocic], in the first round. I think he could have ended the fight if he really wanted to."
Sterling continued:
"Jon Jones was trying to see how he woild feel with more ring time so that he could see, 'If I were to fight Aspinall, how do I really think I would do?' He's like the revamped version of Mike Tyson. Not as crazy but still up there with Tyson. Like, the way we talked about Tyson is the way we're gonna talk about Jones."
Check out Aljamain Sterling's comments here:
Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 play-by-play
As the UFC 309 main event started, we saw the difference in speed and footwork between the two right away. Jon Jones looked light on his feet, throwing fast strikes here and there to gauge Miocic's timing and distance. Miocic, on the other hand, looked slow and flat-footed, merely waiting for opportunities instead of making them.
Jones perfectly timed an outside leg trip off of a punch that would make Yoshihiro Akiyama proud. From the top position, 'Bones' unleashed a hellacious amount of ground-and-pound that almost merited a 10-8 round.
The second round saw Miocic's activity diminish even more, while Jones dominated the exchanges on the feet, almost hitting his challenger at will.
In the third and penultimate round, the story was the same as the second. Jones hurt Miocic with a thunderous right hand, backing the former champion up. Jones then unloaded the fight-ending spinning back-kick, which folded Miocic like a lawn chair. The champion followed up with some heavy ground-and-pound, before getting stopped by the referee.