Jon Jones did his job on Saturday night by thoroughly dominating Stipe Miocic and putting him away with a vicious spinning back kick to the body in the third round in the UFC 309 main event. But did Jones deserve that much credit considering Miocic was coming off nearly four years of inactivity, and at 42 years old, he may not have been the same fighter who twice conquered the heavyweight division in the UFC.
That’s the argument UFC legend Matt Brown made looking back at the fight because as much as Jones put on a vintage performance, he wasn’t exactly facing the Miocic who took out opponents like Francis Ngannou and Daniel Cormier in the past.
“As bad as he looked athletically — he looked his age, also — I say he looked past his age, to be honest,” Brown said about Miocic on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “Straight legs, no hate on Stipe. It just looked like he doesn’t have it at this point, and why should he? He came into challenge himself at the highest level with the greatest ever and didn’t pass the challenge.
“This might be a little controversial, but to me, it almost takes away a little bit from Jon Jones. I mean he beat him almost flawlessly. I gave Stipe round two, but it wasn’t like some demolition or anything. It was almost flawless for Jon Jones, but I wasn’t amazed by Jon Jones beating that version of Stipe.”
While Miocic found a way to stick around following a lopsided opening round where he ended up on his back with Jones dropping bombs on him from the top, the Ohio native just never really put together any offense during the fight.
By all accounts, Miocic looked much slower than Jones during all the exchanges and his reaction time just seemed off compared to the heavyweight great from the past.
“Stipe, to me, looked like he didn’t really want to be there,” Brown said. “He’s there for the challenge and maybe the money. I don’t know what his motivations were exactly. But it didn’t look to me like he really wanted to be there.”
Now Brown admits that perhaps Miocic’s demeanor changed dramatically after he absorbed a ton of punishment from Jones in the first round and he just never recovered.
But he also acknowledged that Miocic clearly didn’t look himself and he wasted no time after the fight was over to announce his retirement from the sport.
“Maybe that was Jon, too. Maybe I’m taking too much away from Jon,” Brown explained. “Maybe Stipe was all about it and motivated and then as soon as Jon threw the first punch he’s like ‘OK, actually maybe I don’t want to be doing this.’
“Maybe we should give Jon more credit there, but to me, it just looked like Stipe just didn’t want to be there. He just wasn’t present in the moment. He didn’t have that fire under his ass. He was just like ‘if I beat you, I beat you, if I don’t, I don’t.’ That’s the way it felt to me just emotionally.”
There’s no way to say for certain what led to Miocic’s performance on Saturday, but the easiest answer surrounds his time off between fights and his age.
That’s why Brown is hesitant to heap too much praise on Jones for getting the job done the way he did on Saturday.
“In terms of fight IQ, it was an absolutely insanely great performance,” Brown said about Jones. “My knock on it was the athleticism — I don’t know if it’s because Jon is so much more athletic than everybody, or Stipe’s actually declined that far because Jon could do that to a lot of people who are in their prime, too.”
Regardless of the outcome, Jones successfully defended his heavyweight title and he continues to reign as arguably the greatest fighter of all time. Brown says that fact didn’t change just because he faced Miocic past his prime.
“Jon’s cemented his legacy,” Brown said. “He’s the greatest of all-time. No one is going to debate that for a long time, other than the [performance-enhancing drug use] accusations. That’s the argument against Jon. There’s not really another argument against Jon. He’s the greatest of all-time.
“As long as he stays undefeated, it doesn’t matter who he fights — and he knows this — it doesn’t matter who he fights, if he stays undefeated, he’s going to remain the GOAT.”
