Jones Snubs Miocic’s Handshake In Fiery Face-Off – ‘It’s Very Personal’
Jon Jones took things personally by not shaking Stipe Miocic’s hand in their face off at their pre-fight presser.
Jones faces Miocic at UFC 309 tomorrow in a battle to see who is the best heavyweight of this generation. Jones enters the fight with plenty of pressure on him after suggestions that he is ducking Tom Aspinall. Aspinall is the UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion and will face the winner next. Jones was asked about the prospect of fighting Aspinall, stating that Tom lost the opportunity to get the fight because of his disrespect towards him. Bones has indicated he may retire unless the UFC offers him a super fight against the light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.
Miocic is 42 years old and is arguably going to have his last fight. He has won the heavyweight title twice and defended it successfully on four occasions. However, he has not had a UFC fight since 2021, when Francis Ngannou knocked him out at UFC 260. Miocic wanted the trilogy, but Ngannou’s departure from the UFC means a win over Jones is the next best thing.
At their face-off, Jones did not shake Stipe’s hand. This may have been because Miocic cussed at Jones during the build-up. But Jones was heard telling Stipe, not to mention his children, as the heavyweight champion had a personal mission.
Face Off
“Everyone likes first responders and I actually respect men and women in the armed forces and law enforcement and things like that so I made it a point to try and be very respectful to him. There’s been two scenarios now. First scenario he said ‘my kids will never look at me like I’m an a**h*le.’ That was a direct attack to me and my family and my relationship with my kids. The second attack was him calling me a b***h. So the respect is a little bit out the window and we’ll see that on Saturday. It’s very personal to me, yes,” Jones
“I don’t even remember saying that ‘my kids will never look at me like I’m an a**h*le.’ That was no direct thing to him. When I said bring it on, bitch, he was pretty much calling me out, telling me he was going to beat my ass in front of a whole arena of people. Sorry for defending myself, I apologize,” Miocic
Main Card
Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic
Charles Oliveira vs. Michael Chandler
Bo Nickal vs. Paul Craig
Viviane Araujo vs. Karine Silva
Mauricio Ruffy vs. James Llontop
Prelims
Jonathan Martinez vs. Marcus McGhee
Chris Weidman vs. Eryk Anders
Jim Miller vs. Damon Jackson
David Onama vs. Roberto Romero
Early Prelims
Marcin Tybura vs. Jhonata Diniz
Mickey Gall vs. Ramiz Brahimaj
Bassil Hafez vs. Oban Elliott
Veronica Hardy vs. Eduarda Moura
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