UFC 309 Report: Will Jon Jones fight Tom Aspinall? Plus, a farewell to Stipe Miocic

UFC 309 is in the books, and Jon Jones finally got his win over Stipe Miocic.

This past Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Jones stopped Miocic in a bout nearly two years in the making, retaining his heavyweight title. In the aftermath, Miocic retired from the sport while Jones left his future up in the air.

So with so much to talk about plus more, let’s gather the MMA Fighting brain trust to discuss everything that happened at UFC 309.

1. What is your blurb review of UFC 309?

Heck: Underwhelming, but still gave us a lot to talk about at the same time. Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic was exactly what I expected it to be — maybe even worse than I drew it up in my mind — while the co-main event was one-way traffic through the first 20-plus minutes until wild man Michael Chandler nearly pulled off one of the most insane comebacks ever.

There’s also a lot of questions about Bo Nickal moving forward, and Mauricio Ruffy is fun as hell. Fun moments, certainly, but I’m glad this weekend of fights is officially behind us.

Lee: A card that looked meh on paper, turned out meh in practice. The main event clash of legends turned out to be way, way, way past its best before date, Bo Nickal fell flat despite remaining undefeated, and it felt like nothing of consequence happened.

But hey, Oliveira vs. Chandler 2 was pretty fun!

Meshew: To paraphrase Dennis Green, it was what we thought it was!

Everyone other than the most gullible of rubes knew that Jones vs. Miocic was a vanity project with minimal chance of being competitive and that’s exactly what we got. Stipe looked better than Mike Tyson, but still quite old, and so even though Jones himself looked a bit past his prime, it was a woeful mismatch. At least it’s over now, and we can move on to actually meaningful bouts.

Martin: Arguably one of the most lackluster pay-per-views of the year.

It wasn’t exactly a stacked card because anytime you’ve got a proven draw like Jon Jones at the top, where he’s also earning a hefty payday, the UFC doesn’t typically load the undercard with the biggest names. But even by those standards, the fights at UFC 309 failed to deliver. That’s also considering the Fight of the Night between Charles Oliveira and Michael Chandler didn’t really get crazy until the final five minutes. The main event played out as many suspected it would, with Jones being the GOAT, and Miocic looking every bit like he’s 42 years old and returning from a three-plus year long layoff.

2. Keep it short: Is Jon Jones going to fight Tom Aspinall?

Heck: Nope. And guess what? That’s OK.

Unfortunately for Jon Jones, he was about 35 media appearances too late about his honest view of the situation. Jon is prize fighting, and has every right to do so. He plans to give the UFC his financial “demand” to face Tom Aspinall, and it’s probably the biggest singular pay day in UFC history. My guess is it will take in the $35-40 million (could be more) range for Jon to face Aspinall, and to be clear, I do not blame him one bit for the ask. He’s earned it.

The problem is, the UFC won’t pay that, and they absolutely, positively do not need to. Those three letters are the money makers, and no singular fighter will ever again be bigger than them.

In the end, everybody will get some semblance of what they want: Jones can fight Alex Pereira in a massive fight that will cost the UFC less to make, but has tremendous financial upside, and Aspinall can be the heavyweight champion of the world to keep this division moving forward. Jones vs. Pereira can happen, but Jones will need to vacate — and he has said he would. And to be as fair as we can be, if Pereira is to accept that fight, he should vacate his belt as well.

Martin: No*

But why is there an asterisk there you ask? Because Jones is almost certainly setting this up to let the UFC take the fall for the fight not happening. By constantly downplaying his interest in facing Aspinall unless the UFC pays him “f*ck you money” — as he put it so eloquently quoting the great Bobby Axelrod — the responsibility now falls on the promotion to make it happen. If the UFC doesn’t back up the Brinks truck, Jones can easily say he would have fought Aspinall, but Dana White just wouldn’t pay him what he’s worth.

*And to a certain extent, he’s probably right.

So just like the last time around with the Francis Ngannou fight, the public discourse will turn into the blame game with Jones eventually riding off into the sunset and Aspinall probably facing Ciryl Gane sometime in 2025.

Lee: Yes.

I’m gearing up in full Prince of Positivity mode here, because I’ve been significantly less positive about pretty much everything Jones has done for the past 18 months. I have to believe that there’s a reason for why this sequence of events has played out the way it has. For once, let there be order.

Even if Jones gets his wish and fights and defeats Alex Pereira first (Magomed Ankalaev getting left out in all of this), I can’t see him going out on that win. The high of that victory would carry him to one more matchup, one more training camp, one more fight night. And who else could it be other than Aspinall?

I genuinely believe some of the other random names Jones has thrown out there (Derrick Lewis???) are either Jones trolling or just being his usual awkward self, take your pick. He’s inadvertently built the Aspinall fight up to epic proportions and when the time comes, Jones and the UFC will find the right number to make this must-have heavyweight fight happen.

Meshew: Nope.

I understand there are a lot of people out there who want to believe this is all a long con from Jones to get more money and build up the fight bigger, and I suppose that could be true, but there is a simpler answer: Jones is telling us the truth, and he’s not going to fight Aspinall.

Remember, this is not a new situation. Back in 2020, Dana White said Jones was absolutely going to rematch Dominick Reyes. Instead Jones vacated his light heavyweight title and then spent three years negotiating for a huge sum of money to fight Francis Ngannou. The UFC never paid them and that fight never happened. Same story, different year.

3. What was the best part of UFC 309?

Meshew: I can’t believe I’m going to say this but Michael Chandler’s goofy self.

In the co-main event, Charles Oliveira beat the bejesus out of Chandler for 20 minutes in a one-sided, and frankly boring, matchup. But then in the final round Chandler realized he had yet to tap into his greatest weapon: cheating.

After landing some good punches Chandler and Oliveira wound up on the floor against the fence, and Chandler brazenly defied the rules of MMA and general decency, firing roughly 27 punches/elbows directly into the back of Oliveira’s head. These openly illegal strikes had “Do Bronx” in a world of trouble, and Keith Peterson just watching the whole thing without so much as a peep almost led to an astonishing comeback.

But of course that wasn’t to be because Chandler is a silly goose, and then stayed in Oliveira’s guard, allowing his opponent to recover and ending his last chance at beating “Chucky Olives.”

Then, despite losing a one-sided decision, Chandler also got a post-fight interview where he basically acted as if he didn’t lose and re-ignited his feud with Conor McGregor. The whole thing was deeply amusing and led to by far the best moments of our Watch Party.

Heck: Stipe Miocic’s sigh of relief.

Miocic left the cage on his own power after getting run over by Jon Jones, which is always good. He made one last big bag of money, got to headline against the greatest fighter ever at Madison Square Garden, and then he said the two words into a live microphone he’s been dying to say for the last nearly four years.

“I’m done.”

Miocic is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and the greatest UFC heavyweight in history. His first title run was so damn impressive, and we can now focus on those incredible accomplishments. More importantly, Miocic can focus on the things he loves most: His family, and being a firefighter. Tip of the cap to a legend.

Lee: Jim Miller and Damon Jackson was perfect booking and exactly how the UFC needs to look after Miller going forward. A finish was all but guaranteed once pen was put to paper and we saw vintage “A-10” as he jumped the gilly to secure his 13th submission inside the octagon. Shout-out to Jackson, who left his gloves in the cage presumably calling an end to a great career, but the post-fight was all about Miller.

I confess I’m not fully up to date on this whole “Peanut” thing, but watching Miller use the post-fight time of his 45th UFC appearance to address the controversy was objectively funny. Apparently, it was no laughing matter to Miller though as he was dead serious discussing it with the media later.

Martin: Call me cheesy, but any time Jon Jones fights, it feels special and realistically, we’re probably down to the final couple of appearances in his legendary career.

Like it or not, Jones really is the greatest of all-time and no matter how mad you might get at him for fighting Stipe Miocic over Tom Aspinall, there’s still a certain aura that surrounds the arena when he’s competing. From his walk to the cage surrounded by the thunderous drums from “The Champ is Here” by Jadakiss to his famous crawl through the cage door to the cartwheel that actually gets him to his corner, the intensity and excitement always gets ratcheted up for a Jones fight. Sure, Miocic looked like he was fighting in quicksand but Jones still methodically dismantled him and the spinning back kick to the body to finish the fight was pretty damn cool. Truth be told, there wasn’t much to write home about at UFC 309 but at least Jones capped it off in style.

4. What was the worst part of UFC 309?

Martin: Bo Nickal calling his performance amazing probably sits at the top of the list.

Now make no mistake, Nickal is operating under unrealistic expectations with only seven professional fights on his resume, but he’s also invited the ridiculous amount of hype that’s followed him since signing with the UFC as a three-time NCAA champion wrestler. Let’s also not forget, Nickal got his contract with a 3-0 record and two of those wins coming on Dana White’s Contender Series.

At UFC 309, Nickal decided to showcase his striking, but after watching him spend 15 minutes in the cage with a mid-level middleweight like Paul Craig, it’s safe to say he’s got some work to do.

Following the win, Nickal was effectively patting himself on the back for his performance and perhaps that’s just his way of trolling us after he was down right depressed after he dispatched Cody Brundage in much more impressive fashion at UFC 300. But he seemed more satisfied with his latest win than pretty much any other he’s had in the UFC. In reality, however, Nickal showed that while he remains a top prospect, he’s still a long way from being a serious contender.

Heck: Keith “All of the Damn Nonsense” Peterson.

Michael Chandler nearly delivered one of the craziest comebacks in UFC history in the fifth round against Charles Oliveira in a fight that was not competitive for over 20 minutes. “Iron” lost, and lost badly, but still came out looking rosy when it was all said and done — but he also cheated his ass off the entire fight. And let’s be clear, Chandler is not to blame because if the referee is going to allow it, it’s fair game, and oh boy, did Keith Peterson allow it.

Multiple fence grabs and glove grabs throughout, and in the near-miracle finish sequence in Round 5, Chandler hit Oliveira in the back of the head over and over again, while Peterson stared directly at it and did NOTHING.

Every fighter should look for that extra edge, because very few referees in this day and age want to put themselves in a position to impact a fight by — and I know this is crazy — enforcing the freaking rules. Peterson was absolutely awful on Saturday, and as unacceptable as it should be, it’s now just a normal thing that happens. Fighters, always cheat, because you won’t be penalized.

Lee: I’m never going to get over how pointless this main event was. Jones fighting Miocic instead of Aspinall is, like, 50 times worse than Aljamain Sterling fighting T.J. Dillashaw instead of Jose Aldo. And that was absolutely terrible.

This was a compelling matchup when Jones was fresh off his win over Gane, but when it fell through the first time, everyone should have agreed to move on especially with how Aspinall has established himself. Instead, we’ve had to drag on this story of two legends finally meeting in the octagon, knowing that by the time UFC 309 actually arrived the result would have no substantial impact on their legacies. Watching it actually play out just made me feel bad inside.

Congrats Jones, you got another notable name to add to your Wikipedia page.

Meshew: The return of “nice guy Jon Jones.”

At the start of his career, Jones was pretty clearly attempting to follow the Georges St-Pierre playbook of being a classy, respectful, professional fighter who could usher in a new era of brand deals and mainstream acceptance. The only problem is Jones isn’t that guy and it all fell apart pretty quickly as his outside the cage controversies began to mount and clips like “I would literally kill you” started to come out. And to Jones’s credit, there was a period where he embraced it. He was happy to be his true self and revel in the heel turn. But that wasn’t the case this week.

This past week Jones went all in on a version of himself that, frankly, seems incredibly hollow. All fight week he vacillated between being respectful to Stipe Miocic and Tom Aspinall one minute and then trashing them the next.

The coup de grace for me was the post-fight press conference where after saying he would only fight Tom Aspinall for “life changing money” Jones then quibbled about calling it a demand, before later launching into an impromptu political campaign ad. “Thank you Stipe Miocic. Thank you for being a first responder. I absolutely love you. I love our law enforcement, I love being an American, I love our military, I love our firefighters. I love our nurses and our doctors.”

That’s not a real human being talking, and it’s certainly not Jones talking. We know what Jones sounds like. That’s him putting on a performance, and I honestly thought we were past all that with him.

5. Who was the unsung hero of UFC 309?

Lee: David Onama and Roberto Romero should share this one.

Up until this week, it looked like Onama wouldn’t even be on the card after losing opponent Lucas Almeida. However, Romero bravely stepped up on less than a week’s notice, the bout was shifted up from featherweight to lightweight, and just like that we had another scrap on our hands.

The first round was a back-and-forth thriller, and while Onama eventually asserted himself and took a convincing decision, Romero deserves a ton of credit for putting a scare into the seven-fight UFC veteran with so little time to prepare. Come January, most fans probably won’t remember this fight all that much, but it’s a reminder that guys like Onama and Romero serve to brighten up a UFC calendar that is too frequently marked by mediocrity these days.

Martin: It’s almost impossible to find anybody who’s universally beloved in combat sports, but Jim Miller fills that role quite well.

He’s never been a champion and he only got close to title contention once or twice during his UFC career but his blue-collar roots and workman like attitude have carried him a long way in this sport. Miller holds a ton of records and as he mentioned on Saturday night, even with 45 fights on his UFC resume, he’s rarely seen the scorecards compared to many of his peers with somewhat similar experience. He doesn’t get into trouble. He doesn’t say remarkably stupid or controversial things. He just goes out, fights and usually wins.

At UFC 309, Miller finished Damon Jackson with a nasty guillotine choke that had Dustin Poirier losing his mind. As sad as Jackson was to lose, and then call it a career afterwards, deep down, even he’s probably happy for Miller on some level! That’s just the way it goes for Miller, and the sport is going to be less interesting once he’s not around any longer.

Meshew: Charles Oliveira.

Aside from wailing on Michael Chandler like he owed him money (always a good way to get in my good graces) Oliveira also did something no one else has ever done before: by winning Fight of the Night, Oliveira now has 20 post-fight bonuses in UFC history. It’s the most all time and, if you do some quick math, it also makes Oliveira the first fighter to earn $1 million just from bonuses. It’s a cool little record, and I wanted to shout him out.

Heck: Oban Elliott did the damn thing, and boy, was it needed in that fight.

“The Welsh Gangster” improved to 3-0 this year — all on numbered pay-per-view cards. The fight with Bassil Hafez through two rounds was, let’s be honest, a tough watch. Elliott saw an opening in Round 3 and bulldozed through it, knocking out Hafez and getting an extra $50,000 for his troubles (he probably should’ve gotten at least two bonuses since he actually knocked out Hafez multiple times in one sequence).

Elliott then styled and profiled like Ric Flair and did tremendous work on the microphone. The 26-year-old is going to be a very interesting fighter to watch heading into 2025.

6. How are we going to remember this event?

Heck: So many obvious answers, but I’m going a wee-bit off the board in definition: This will be the start of the most important chapter in Bo Nickal’s UFC career. Either the phenom learns, grows, and is humbled by his performance on Saturday, or he is heading to a pretty tough place.

Is the most important thing a win? Certainly. But Nickal’s outing against Paul Craig led to the first “overrated” chant from a UFC crowd I can remember ever hearing. It’s a fight that nobody willingly watches again. Yes, he’s undefeated, but the brakes have been pumped with a lot of the takes and predictions people have had with Nickal. His post-fight reactions were tough to listen to, honestly, and his Q rating took a nose dive.

Luckily, this is MMA, and in a sport where Joaquin Buckley can go from being one of the top-three most disliked fighters in the promotion earlier in the year, to turning it all around on one night in Salt Lake City, Nickal can do it too. But he needs to change things up. If he wants to keep playing the arrogant heel, fine, but the man needs to fight more. He needs to fight at least three times in 2025. The slow-rolling needs to stop. The opponents don’t even matter. Nickal needs to be out there in the octagon fighting as often as possible. If he doesn’t, the weight on the Nickal hype train is going to lessen more and more.

Lee: Do we have to?

What I mean to say is, are we going to find ourselves having to look back at UFC 309 and give it any particular importance? It’s a card that, at our most cynical, we were looking forward to only so we could move on from it. As I always say, MMA is supposed to be fun, and other than pitting Oliveira and Chandler against one another again like two piranhas in an undersized fish tank, this lineup didn’t guarantee entertainment.

As with most UFC cards, there were enough moments to remind fans why this is the biggest fighting brand in the world, but for the most part we were left with more questions than answers. What will Jones do now? Is Bo Nickal overrated (or “Bo-verrated,” if you’re so inclined)? Did Karine Silva sink her chances of becoming a contender? And seriously, how much longer can Jim Miller keep this up?

My guess: When fans discuss UFC 309 in the future, it will be remembered for President Elect Donald Trump’s grandiose victory march into Madison Square Garden, not for anything that happened in the cage.

Martin: That father time really is undefeated.

While most of UFC 309 is pretty forgettable, the event stands forever as the final appearance of Stipe Miocic, who is undoubtedly one of the greatest heavyweights in the history of the sport. He was a two-time UFC champion with a remarkable record after taking out fighters like Francis Ngannou, Alistair Overeem, Fabricio Werdum and Daniel Cormier (twice).

Unfortunately, nearly four years off and turning 42 just caught up with Miocic on Saturday night. While nobody was expecting a vintage performance, Miocic sadly kind of justified why everybody was shouting for Jones to face Aspinall instead because Cleveland’s favorite firefighter just looked like he lost a step or two — and that’s to be expected at his age! It’s so rare that anyone goes out on top in this sport and now Miocic is the latest example of somebody who probably stuck around for one fight too many. Here’s hoping his retirement fight at least added a couple of zeroes to his bank account rather than just being handed a cheap gold watch.

Meshew: As the final fight of Jon Jones.

As mentioned above, I believe Jones laid out his terms for continuing to compete and I do not believe the UFC will meet his “requests” (since Jones doesn’t like the term demands). So that means Jones is unlikely to ever compete again. And frankly I don’t begrudge him that.

While I heavily dislike the way Jones spoke all week — carrying himself as a conquering hero above reproach and not a fighter and champion like everyone else — I fundamentally agree with most of what he said. It would be silly for him to risk his “undefeated” record in a fight against a bigger, younger champion. If he can get paid a pile of money to go slaughter Alex Pereira (and make no mistake, a slaughter it would be) then that does make more sense for him. He doesn’t lose out on much by simply choosing to retire on top.

All of this is very real, and while legacy doesn’t pay the bills, Jones has made plenty of money and retiring “undefeated” clearly means a lot to him personally. If we’re being honest I think he should walk away, the same way I thought Daniel Cormier should retire after beating Stipe Miocic.

The old adage is always leave them wanting more, and I suspect Jon Jones is going to do just that.