After a less than appealing fight card last Saturday, the UFC looks to redeem themselves with a blockbuster fight card this Saturday at UFC 309. The main event features the long-awaited return of both Jon “Bones” Jones and Stipe Miocic when they square off against each other for the UFC heavyweight belt.
The co-main event also promises to deliver as it sees “Iron” Michael Chandler and Charles “do Bronx” Oliveira face off against each other for the first time since their lightweight title matchup at UFC 262 that saw Oliveira get the best of Chandler with a second round TKO.
Jon Jones vs Stipe Miocic:
After winning the heavyweight belt at UFC 285 with a first-round guillotine choke against Ciryl Gane, Jones was set to defend his belt against heavyweight great Stipe Miocic at UFC 295. However, Jones would suffer a shoulder injury that would see him be sidelined indefinitely leading to Tom Aspinall and Sergei Pavolich, where Aspinall would win by first round knockout.
On the other hand, Stipe Miocic has not fought since his second-round knockout loss to Francis Ngannou at UFC 260, where he would lose his heavyweight title.
However, before this loss, and still to this day, Miocic is regarded by many as the greatest UFC heavyweight of all time. He would start his initial title reign grabbing the belt out of the unconscious hands of Fabricio Werdum via first round knockout, and he would then go on to make quick work of Alistair Overeem and Junior dos Santos with first round knockouts — dominating Francis Ngannou for a unanimous decision victory in their first meeting.
Miocic would lose his title against Daniel Cormier but would then regain it from him and take a decision victory in their trilogy match.
My Thoughts: This fight absolutely should NOT be happening. Tom Aspinall is the interim champion, and if Jon Jones wins this fight and continues to refuse to fight him, he should not only be stripped of the belt, but he should also go down as the biggest coward in the history of the promotion. That being said, I think Jones makes quick work with a first-round submission.
Charles Oliveira vs Michael Chandler 2:
In their first fight, with the vacant lightweight title on the line, “do Bronx” would see adversity at the end of the first round before knocking out Chandler inside 30 seconds of the second round. From there, Oliveira would go on to defend his title against Dustin Poirier with a fourth-round submission. Hewould then beat Justin Gaethje before being stripped of the belt due to missing weight the morning before.
Oliveira would go on to face off against Islam Mackhachev for the belt he was stripped of, ultimately coming up short when Islam submitted him in the second round. After that fight, he would bounce back with a first round TKO over Beneil Dariush and would lose a close decision to current number one contender Arman Tsarukyan earlier this year at UFC 300.
On the other hand, Chandler is 1-2 since his meeting with Oliveira; however, both of his losses have been “Fight of the Year” contenders with his fight against Justin Gaethje being named Fight of the Year for 2021 and his fight with Dustin Poirier finishing in third place for 2022.
My Thoughts: this is going to being another instant classic. However, Michael Chandler is every coach’s worst nightmare, and his counterpart, Oliveira, is a coach’s favorite dream. I think Oliveira will get another second-round finish but this time via submission.
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