4 hours Ago By Alex Ballentine
One of the best fighters to ever fight in the UFC Octagon and one of the greatest heavyweights of all time when Jon Jones meets Stipe Miocic in the UFC 309 main event from Madison Square Garden in New York City. The highly anticipated heavyweight championship is more than a year in the making. Bones was originally scheduled to take on Miocic in November 2023, but Jones tore his pectoral muscle off the bone and was forced to take time off.
The heavyweight division has been in a bit of a holding pattern since. Tom Aspinall went on to fight Sergei Pavlovich for an interim title, but was still forced to wait in line behind MIocic. Both Jones and Miocic are probably toward the end of their careers so there's a lot on the line when the two championship meet in the final fight of the night.
Here's a look at the complete offering for the New York card, the latest odds and a preview of the two featured bouts on the evening. Tickets: Vivid Seats Main Card (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m.
ET) Prelims (ESPNews/FX/Hulu, 8 p.m. ET) Early Prelims (Hulu/ESPN+, 6 p.
m. ET) Odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook In light of 58-year-old Mike Tyson throwing on boxing gloves this weekend it feels a little odd to take about how the main event is between two fighters on the cusp of retirement. Yet 37-year-old Jon Jones and 42-year-old Sipe Miocic may only have a handful of fights left.
Fortunately for fans, at least one of those fights will be against each other. Miocic's time atop the heavyweight division mostly happened during Jones' domination of the light heavyweight division. It's a superfight that would have done major business at the peak of their powers.
Instead, fans will have to settle for watching the fight as they both near the end of their careers. Miocic is a particular wildcard at this point. He hasn't fought since a 2021 knockout loss to Francis Ngannou that made The Predator champion.
The long layoff could be a benefit as his body has had some time to heal, but it could mean his aging is even worse than it was. The other x-factor is that this is just the second time we are going to see Jones as a heavyweight. He was absolutely dominant against Ciryl Gane, but Miocic is a much different fighter.
While Gane had zero answers for Jones' wrestling, Miocic has at least decent wrestling skills for a heavyweight. He won't be as easily pushed around and has the power to still make things interesting on the feet. That being said, we are still probably looking at another coronating event for Jon Jones.
Prediction: Jones via fourth-round TKO The co-main event doesn't feature a title fight, but it's an undeniably fun matchup even without a belt on the line. Michael Chandler will finally step into the cage after waiting over two years on a Conor McGregor fight that hasn't materialized. The unfortunate thing for him, is that his matchup might actually be worse.
While McGregor's retirement could leave him as an exposed potential foe, Do Bronx has remained active and fighting the best there is in the lightweight division. Chandler will try to reverse the results of his 2021 loss to Oliveira. However, there isn't a clear path to show that he has improved since Oliveira beat him by second-round TKO.
Since that fight, Chandler has just one win, a front kick knockout win over Tony Ferguson in 2022. Now, he has shake off two years worth of ring rust in addition to drawing a tough assignment. Oliveira knocked out Chandler in their first bout and didn't even have to resort to his submission game.
This time Chandler might see how well-rounded Oliveria has become. Prediction: Oliveira by second-round submission.
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