Jon Jones did his job on Saturday night time by completely dominating Stipe Miocic and placing him away with a vicious spinning again kick to the physique within the third spherical within the UFC 309 most important occasion. However did Jones deserve that a lot credit score contemplating Miocic was coming off practically 4 years of inactivity, and at 42 years previous, he might not have been the identical fighter who twice conquered the heavyweight division within the UFC.
That’s the argument UFC legend Matt Brown made trying again on the battle as a result of as a lot as Jones placed on a classic efficiency, he wasn’t precisely dealing with the Miocic who took out opponents like Francis Ngannou and Daniel Cormier prior to now.
“As unhealthy as he regarded athletically — he regarded his age, additionally — I say he regarded previous his age, to be sincere,” Brown stated about Miocic on the most recent episode of The Fighter vs. The Author. “Straight legs, no hate on Stipe. It simply regarded like he doesn’t have it at this level, and why ought to he? He got here into problem himself on the highest stage with the best ever and didn’t go the problem.
“This is likely to be a bit of controversial, however to me, it virtually takes away a bit of bit from Jon Jones. I imply he beat him virtually flawlessly. I gave Stipe spherical two, nevertheless it wasn’t like some demolition or something. It was virtually flawless for Jon Jones, however I wasn’t amazed by Jon Jones beating that model of Stipe.”
Whereas Miocic discovered a solution to stick round following a lopsided opening spherical the place he ended up on his again with Jones dropping bombs on him from the highest, the Ohio native simply by no means actually put collectively any offense throughout the battle.
By all accounts, Miocic regarded a lot slower than Jones throughout all of the exchanges and his response time simply appeared off in comparison with the heavyweight nice from the previous.
“Stipe, to me, regarded like he didn’t actually wish to be there,” Brown stated. “He’s there for the problem and possibly the cash. I don’t know what his motivations had been precisely. But it surely didn’t look to me like he actually needed to be there.”
Now Brown admits that maybe Miocic’s demeanor modified dramatically after he absorbed a ton of punishment from Jones within the first spherical and he simply by no means recovered.
However he additionally acknowledged that Miocic clearly didn’t look himself and he wasted no time after the battle was over to announce his retirement from the game.
“Possibly that was Jon, too. Possibly I’m taking an excessive amount of away from Jon,” Brown defined. “Possibly Stipe was all about it and motivated after which as quickly as Jon threw the primary punch he’s like ‘OK, truly possibly I don’t wish to be doing this.’
“Possibly we must always give Jon extra credit score there, however to me, it simply regarded like Stipe simply didn’t wish to be there. He simply wasn’t current within the second. He didn’t have that fireplace underneath his ass. He was similar to ‘if I beat you, I beat you, if I don’t, I don’t.’ That’s the way in which it felt to me simply emotionally.”
There’s no solution to say for sure what led to Miocic’s efficiency on Saturday, however the best reply surrounds his day without work between fights and his age.
That’s why Brown is hesitant to heap an excessive amount of reward on Jones for getting the job completed the way in which he did on Saturday.
“When it comes to battle IQ, it was a completely insanely nice efficiency,” Brown stated about Jones. “My knock on it was the athleticism — I don’t know if it’s as a result of Jon is a lot extra athletic than all people, or Stipe’s truly declined that far as a result of Jon might do this to lots of people who’re of their prime, too.”
Whatever the end result, Jones efficiently defended his heavyweight title and he continues to reign as arguably the best fighter of all time. Brown says that reality didn’t change simply because he confronted Miocic previous his prime.
“Jon’s cemented his legacy,” Brown stated. “He’s the best of all-time. Nobody goes to debate that for a very long time, apart from the [performance-enhancing drug use] accusations. That’s the argument in opposition to Jon. There’s probably not one other argument in opposition to Jon. He’s the best of all-time.
“So long as he stays undefeated, it doesn’t matter who he fights — and he is aware of this — it doesn’t matter who he fights, if he stays undefeated, he’s going to stay the GOAT.”
