While Jon Jones and Charles Oliveira impressed, were the biggest winners Michael Chandler and Conor McGregor?
A 12-fight card at UFC 309 in New York City was headlined by a heavyweight clash between current champion Jon Jones and former champion Stipe Miocic. Jones and Charles Oliveira emerged as big winners from the night, but what do their victories mean for the bigger picture in the sport? Also of note, did Michael Chandler salvage a fight with Conor McGregor in the fifth round, even in a loss? To make sense of it all, Mike Coppinger, Jeff Wagenheim and Brett Okamoto offer their final takeaways on a fun night of fights in Madison Square Garden.
Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic were set to fight last November at Madison Square Garden before the fight was postponed. Once Jones was recovered from his surgery to repair a torn pectoral tendon, UFC president Dana White rescheduled the heavyweight championship fight to headline the annual November show in Madison Square Garden.
Jones left no doubt once again that he’s the greatest MMA fighter of all time with a third-round TKO of Miocic in the first defense of his UFC heavyweight championship. The 37-year-old bloodied Miocic, busted up his right eye and then finished him off with a beautiful spinning back kick to the body.
After his first fight in 20 months, Jones quickly extinguished any retirement talk and said he would meet with White and UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell to plan his next fight. Jones has tossed around the idea of a superfight against light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira, but White said in the lead-up that he must first face interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall, who was cageside.
„Jon’s already the best ever“, White said to ESPN on Friday during an extended interview. „I don’t think anybody debates that. He moved up to f—ing heavyweight and fought the No. 1 guy in the world. Ciryl Gane doesn’t go for that armbar in the third round, he wins that fight against f- – -ing Francis [Ngannou].
„And the fight was that tight. [Jones] buzz saws right through him when he moved up. He’s annihilated all the greats, the all-time greats, at light heavyweight. . He hasn’t f—ing lost a fight in his life; 16 f—ing years. .I don’t know if anybody will ever do that again.“
That Jones has reached this lofty status was far from a formality despite his tremendous athletic gifts. He’s been stripped of his championship twice as he’s dealt with multiple performance-enhancing drug bans and run-ins with the law.
But now, after a lengthy run as light heavyweight champion and two impressive wins in heavyweight title fights, Jones is primed to finish his career on a high note with Aspinall and perhaps Pereira waiting in the wings next year.
