Interim Belt? ‘Total Disrespect!’

The UFC never even considered putting Stipe Miocic into an interim title fight at UFC 295. Here’s why.

UFC 295 in New York City is just two weeks away, and it has a brand new title fight attached to it. Gone is the Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic heavyweight title bout. Now we’ll see Tom Aspinall vs. Sergei Pavlovich for an interim heavyweight belt.

This is all due to a Jon Jones pectoral muscle tear, which the champ will undergo surgery to fix. But why was Stipe Miocic pulled from the card? Wouldn’t it make more sense to keep the grizzled former two-time champion on UFC 295? It might, but it goes against what Stipe and the UFC want.

Tom Aspinall summed Miocic’s position up while recounting how UFC exec Hunter Campbell offered him the late-replacement interim fight.

“He’s like, ‘Listen, Jones has injured his shoulder, he’s gonna be out for like a year,’” Aspinall said on The MMA Hour. “‘Stipe only wants to fight Jones. You and Pavlovich for the interim title.’ I’m like, ‘I’m in.’”

At a Power Slap post-fight press conference, UFC CEO Dana White suggested making Miocic fight one of these other heavyweight contenders was insulting.

“Stipe’s not fighting for an interim title, you know what I mean?” White declared. “Jones said, ‘I wanna fight Stipe.’ I said, ‘You’re fighting Stipe.’ You have the greatest heavyweight of all time versus the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. This is a legacy fight for both of those guys.”

“I mean, to even call Stipe and ask Stipe to fight for an interim title is, you know, complete disrespect,” he added. “This is a fight for two legends, legacy, two of the greatest to ever do it. Fans wanna see it, I wanna see it, and they both wanna do it.”

The official timeframe the UFC has given for Jones to return is roughly eight months, but it could be much sooner than that depending on how quickly the G.O.A.T. contender heals up. And when he’s ready to go, the Stipe Miocic fight will be ready to go as well.