Let's try again.
UFC CEO announced today that Jon Jones will defend his UFC heavyweight title at Madison Square Garden for the second consecutive year. Dana White told Complex. In an interview published Saturday.
“Jon Jones will be fighting at Madison Square Garden in November,” White told the outlet.
The new bout, which will be the main event of UFC 309 on Nov. 16, will make up for an original 2023 bout that was canceled just two weeks before UFC 295 due to Jones' pectoral muscle injury.
White has been adamant that Jones-Miocic be rebooked as the champion's first fight after injury surgery, and there were indications the bout would take place at the Garden even before White confirmed it in the hours leading up to UFC 306 on Saturday at The Sphere in Las Vegas.
A targeted plan was put in place to ensure a heavyweight championship showdown between the two men, despite months of complaints from fans and media that the fight had become less important with Tom Aspinall's promotion to interim champion.
Jones, the long-time light heavyweight champion who won the vacant title last March after titleholder Francis Ngannou left the organization, claims a bout against Miocic, who held the heavyweight crown in 2016 and 2019 but hasn't fought since losing the belt to Ngannou by knockout in 2021, will build on his already impressive track record.
Many have speculated that one or both of Jones and Miocic could retire from boxing after the bout, with the 42-year-old Miocic more likely to retire than the 37-year-old Jones.
England's Aspinall won the interim title, created to fill the gap on the UFC 295 marquee after Jones' injury, with a first-round knockout of hard-hitting Russian Sergey Pavlovic at the Garden on November 11 last year.
Aspinall, at 30 years old, is relatively young for an elite heavyweight, but he has made no secret of his desire to face Jones and unify the titles.
The Manchester native successfully defended his interim title in July, knocking out Curtis Blaydes in the first round.
White acknowledged to Complex that the next step for the UFC 309 main event performer and his promotion's interim heavyweight champion is unclear roughly two months before the company's eighth visit to the Garden.
“if [Jones] “We'll see if he wins, if Stipe wins, what happens after that, who retires and so on,” White said.
But UFC's chief reporter offers his opinion on how Jones, an Endicott, New York, native who lives and trains in New Mexico, and Miocic, who is also a firefighter in Ohio, will proceed after this long-delayed showdown between the giants.
“Do I think Steep will retire? I think so. I think he will retire. But who knows. Maybe Steep will want to try. [against Aspinall]”But I do know for sure that if Jon Jones wins that fight, and people are saying it, there's no way he won't fight Aspinall,” White said.
