One of the greatest fighters in MMA history returns Saturday night as Jon Jones defends his heavyweight championship against two-time former champion Stipe Miocic in the main event of UFC 309. Round submission by Cyril Gane at UFC 285 in March 2023.
Jones and Miocic were originally scheduled to meet the following November at UFC 285, but Jones pulled out of the fight after suffering a chest injury. The two legends will now meet at the legendary Madison Square Garden in New York City.
The co-main event of UFC 309 is a five-round lightweight rematch between Charles Oliveira and Michael Chandler. The pair fought at UFC 262 in May 2021 for the vacant lightweight title, which Oliveira won by second-round TKO. The fight is particularly notable because Chandler will be absent for two years on the night of the fight, largely because he was waiting for a highly anticipated fight against Conor McGregor that fell through.
Elsewhere on the card, rising middleweight Bo Nickal returns as he takes on veteran Paul Craig. Nickal is one of the most decorated amateur wrestlers to make the transition to MMA and looks every bit the future contender. In Craig he gets a long-lasting veteran who has only 1-4 points in his last five appearances. Other veterans set to compete Saturday include former middleweight champion Chris Weidman, who will face Eryk Anders, and UFC record holder Jim Miller, who will face Damon Jackson.
These two showdowns feature some of the sport's most notable and successful fighters, and as such there are numerous storylines leading up to it. Let's take a look at some of the biggest of these storylines before the fighters step into the Octagon on Saturday.
1. Jon Jones' legacy is in the spotlight
Jones is without a doubt one of the greatest fighters in MMA history. Say what you will about Jones' troubled past outside the cage, but inside the confines of the Octagon he has been nearly flawless. Still, Jones' legacy has been experiencing strange times since 2019. He lost his fight with Thiago Santos on an official scorecard this year and followed that up with a bout against Dominick Reyes in 2020 most media companies thought he had lost. Jones then seemed ready to finally make the move to heavyweight, something fans had been expecting for about a decade, but became embroiled in financial disputes with the UFC over the idea of facing then-world champion Francis Ngannou. The UFC aggressively tried to reshape the narrative as to why Jones and Ngannou didn't fight, but the fight didn't come to fruition, after which Ngannou left the UFC and Jones eventually made his heavyweight debut, defeating Ciryl Gane to win the heavyweight belt.
Now fans want to see the fight between Jones and interim champion Tom Aspinall, the man who appears to be the future of the division. Instead, Jones has merely expressed disinterest in the challenge and suggested that his two options after UFC 309 are retirement or a fight with light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.
Observers have waited so long to see Jones as a heavyweight, and now that run could end without facing either man who has some claim to being the best heavyweight in the world. Instead, Jones' heavyweight run could end with a win over Gane – a decent fighter but one who was overtaken by Ngannou – and an aged, faded version of Miocic. Can Jones do anything on Saturday that would add to his legacy other than win and call for a duel with Aspinall in his post-fight interview?
2. Why is Stipe Miocic here and does he have a chance?
Similar to Jones, there isn't much debate about Miocic's place in the sport. He's one of the greatest – if not The Greatest heavyweight fighter in UFC history – and holds the record for most consecutive title defenses in UFC division history. Miocic is a legend and the outcome of Saturday's main event won't change that.
Why is Miocic even in this position? In his last fight, he suffered an all-time knockout loss against Ngannou, back in March 2021. Miocic hasn't won a fight since his UFC 252 victory over Daniel Cormier in August 2020, which is almost four and a half years without a win. Tom Brady hoisted one trophy recently when Miocic raised his hand in the Octagon — and Brady has since played two more seasons, retired, embarked on a broadcasting career and made a bid to become part owner of the Las Vegas Raiders.
Miocic, now 42, is getting a shot in the spirit of “We know this guy, and he used to be good” – in the same way UFC fans teased boxing fans about it. He could have a chance to win because everyone in the heavyweight division has a chance on any given night, but even the +500 Miocic odds seem a little generous considering all of that.
3. Michael Chandler tries to ease the pain of losing a Conor McGregor fight
Speaking of fighters who haven't been in the Octagon for a while, Chandler will once again face Charles Oliveira in the co-main event of UFC 309. Chandler will pass the two-year inactivity mark just days before the event. During this time, Chandler waited for a fight with McGregor that never materialized, and appeared to finally die when McGregor sustained an injury to his pinky toe and pulled out of the UFC 303 fight shortly before the event. Chandler filmed a season of The Ultimate Fighter alongside McGregor and watched proposed fight dates come and go before everything fizzled out and he didn't get the payday or exposure of a fight with the UFC's biggest star.
A fight with Oliveira is a nice consolation prize, but Chandler is currently a +225 underdog for the rematch with Oliveira, who stopped Chandler in the second round of their UFC 262 fight for the vacant lightweight title. A loss for Chandler would be a disaster, marking his second straight loss and leaving him with a 1-4 record in his last five fights (and a 2-4 run in the UFC overall).
Chandler is a popular fighter among fans because of his willingness to surrender in wars. But when he gives up on his dream of a megafight against McGregor and gives up on his own career while waiting for McGregor to finally be ready and willing, he faces a second defeat that Oliveira says would hurt in a way that's hard to comprehend is.
4. Will Madison Square Garden tickets look like this in the future?
UFC fans used to be able to look forward to a handful of annual events each year – including the annual MSG card – and know they were being treated to a card full of big fights. UFC 309 seems to be missing the great feeling of the past. Jones vs. Miocic has star power, but there's no big secret about how the fight will turn out. In fact, there isn't a single favorite on the UFC 309 main card currently listed under -250. Jones is -700, Bo Nickal is -1000 and Mauricio Luffy is -750. This is a card much closer to the heavily criticized boxing pay-per-views of five to 20 years ago.
Combined with an International Fight Week card that was already weak when McGregor pulled out of his fight with Chandler, only to be moderately saved by a hasty attempt to salvage the event when Alex Pereira took the light heavyweight title in one Rematch with Jiri Prochazka, started in 2024, didn't feel like it captured the old UFC magic for their traditional “major events.”
Either the UFC is in a transition period as it looks for new top stars, with Jones the only remaining member of a generation's “old guard” stars, or this is what the future of the UFC looks like. Martial arts usually work over a sufficiently long period of time. Boxing has gained significant momentum after a terrible stretch of years, but the UFC's business model of promoting fighters and the constant rotation of weekly events may have set up the promotion for some bleak days in the future.
