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In their annual November trip to New York, the UFC headlined Jon Jones to fight Stipe Miocic for Jones’ heavyweight title. In the co-main event, the most prolific finisher in UFC history, Charles Oliveira, and the always entertaining, Michael Chandler, would go to war in a fight that had real title implications. The other fights were littered with prospects and both the main event and the rest of the card was entertaining. Even after the event finished, fans were left excited, confused, conflicted, and disappointed all at the same time and that was due to one man: Jon Jones.
Jon Jones, the GOAT of MMA (to most people at least), won in dominant fashion over the Heavyweight GOAT, Stipe Miocic. Jones would control from the opening bell to the last moments of the fight, in which he would finish via TKO with a brutal spinning side kick to the body. This was touted as a legacy fight for Jones as he would be facing off with the greatest Heavyweight the UFC had seen, but there is more to the story. Stipe Miocic has not fought since March of 2021, where he got brutally knocked out by Francis Ngannou. Jones was in negotiations with the UFC to fight Ngannou at the time but there was a massive holdout and looking back now, it was clear that Jones was ducking Ngannou. He had waited to move up to the Heavyweight division after Ngannou had left the promotion and fought a much easier opponent for the vacant title. Heading into UFC 309, Jones is once again being accused of ducking the rightful number one contender and Interim Champion, Tom Aspinall to unify the heavyweight title. As confusing as the situation is, one thing is certain: Jon Jones is avoiding Tom Aspinall. He chose to fight a 42 year old Stipe Miocic who looked every bit of his age and as if it couldn’t get any worse, had not fought in 3 and a half years. He took this layup of a fight instead of fighting the Interim Champion Tom Aspinall who is significantly younger and actually active. Jon Jones is ducking the fight and if he doesn’t end up fighting Aspinall in the future, it would be a huge stain on his legacy.
In the co-main event, Charles Oliveira and Michael Chandler would meet fans expectations and go to war, going the full five rounds. Both fighters are fan favorites and this fight proved exactly why they deserve to be. Charles Oliveira would comfortably win the first four rounds, keeping Chandler in danger on the feet and with his submission threat on the ground. The real firefight started in the fifth when Chandler would hurt Charles with a huge right hand and hunt a comeback finish. However, he wouldn’t get the finish and eventually lost position at the end of the fight, and lost via unanimous decision. Despite this he always leaves an impression on the fans, win or lose. Personally, Charles Oliveira is my favorite fighter ever, so seeing him win is extremely exciting as this puts him firmly back in the title picture. This win puts him in position to fight for the lightweight title in a rematch with the winner of Makhachev vs. Tsarukyan.
As for the rest of the card, it was pretty entertaining overall. Some highlights were Mauricio Ruffy’s clinical performance to open the main card. He shows shades of a young Connor McGregor, so he’s a prospect to look out for. David Onama and newcomer Roberto Romero would scrap in a high octane shootout. There also were finishes from veteran Jim Miller, Marcin Tybura, Bronx native Ramiz Brahimaj, and Oban Elliot. There were some duds on the card, as prospect Bo Nickal won against journeyman Paul Craig in an awful three-round snoozefest. This killed a lot of hype for Nickal and showed that he isn’t ready for the high level fights he was looking for.
All in all, this was a good card, despite the controversies and fight cancellations. A lot of entertaining fights and finishes all exacerbated by the passionate New York crowd. It’s always a pleasure to watch fights taking place in Madison Square Garden, the UFC always delivers on their cards here in New York and they keep the fans fired up for every event. This year was no different and I hope that next year’s card will be just as fun as this one was. With another successful event for the UFC, they will surely keep the ball rolling and bring an even better event next time.
