Stipe Miocic is considered the greatest heavyweight in UFC history. When his UFC 295 opponent, heavyweight champion Jon Jones, was forced out of the fight due to injury, the fight promotion didn’t ‘disrespect’ Miocic with an interim title fight offer.
“Jon called and he said he hurt his shoulder training and wrestling, and his team thought he just needed a few days off and, ‘you’ll be fine and whatever,’” White said during Tuesday’s Power Slap Post-Fight Press Conference. “He felt like something was really wrong, flew out here and did the MRI, found out what was wrong and he was super emotional about it, really upset and we did what we do and flipped it and made another fight.”
Sergei Pavlovich and Tom Aspinall will fight for the interim heavyweight title in the UFC 295 co-main event, and the match with Jones and Miocic will be rebooked when Jones has recovered from his injury.
“Stipe’s not fighting for an interim title. Jones said, ‘I want to fight Stipe. I said, ‘You’re fighting Stipe.’ You have the greatest heavyweight to all-time, versus the greatest martial artist of all time. This is a legacy fight for both of those guys. To even call Stipe and ask Stipe to fight for an interim title, is complete disrespect. This is a fight for two legends. Legacy. Two of the greatest to ever do it. The fans want to see it, I want to see it and they both want to do it.”
White expects Jones to be sidelined for at least eight months. When he’ll return to the octagon is anyone’s guess.
“I’m not thinking about anything until I know how Jon’s surgery goes. He’s got to have surgery, so I’ve got to get through the surgery, see how fast he recovers, White said. “He was very serious, he was literally like, ‘I want to do the surgery this week.’ So, he wants to go get this thing done and start rehabbing and start working his way back.”
Related: Fighters react to Jon Jones injury, Tom Aspinall vs. Sergei Pavlovich interim title bout
Miocic is upset that the fight with Jones isn’t happening at UFC 295. He hasn’t fought since March 2021 and was in training camp for the bout. He’ll have to wait for Jones to be ready.
“Obviously Stipe’s been in training camp, and he spent time and energy and money on this thing,” White said. “And when this happens, it’s like – obviously he’s very, very upset about it. These fighters go through a ton of emotions. You saw the backstage with Daniel Cormier when the fight fell out (at UFC 200), and that was days before the fight. But yeah, he’s upset. But he’s the greatest heavyweight of all time. This fight makes sense for him. This is a legacy fight. For Jon Jones to fight Stipe at heavyweight, it’s massive in his career. For Stipe to beat Jon Jones and regain the heavyweight title, why would you want to do anything else?
“Stipe Miocic is going to fight in an interim title fight? No. He’s upset. He’s upset and he deserves to be upset. But it’s one of those things, it’s no one’s fault. Jon Jones wants to fight. Jon Jones doesn’t want to have surgery. We don’t want the Jon Jones fight to go away with Stipe, but it is what it is and we all have to deal with it.”
https://www.mmaweekly.com/news/dana-white-didnt-disrespect-stipe-miocic-with-interim-title-fight-offer
