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Tom Aspinall | Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images Tom Aspinall obliged a unique autograph request ahead of UFC 309. The interim heavyweight champion is in New York for fight week as he prepares to weigh in as the backup for Saturday’s main event featuring Jon Jones defending his share of the heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic. In the lead-up to the fight, much has been made of Aspinall’s attempts to secure a future unification bout with Jones or Miocic, with neither committing to competing again after this weekend much less guaranteeing they will fight Aspinall. During his visit to “The Big Apple,” Aspinall had a humorous interaction with a fan sympathetic to the cause. Aspinall posted a video to his Instagram Stories showing the fan asking him to sign a rubber duck that just so happened to have Jones’ name on it, a reference to Jones “ducking” the British star. Watch the scene below (h/t Championship Rounds). A fan came up to Tom Aspinall in NYC and asked him to sign a rubber duck with Jon Jones name on it @AspinallMMA #UFC309 #UFC #MMA pic.twitter.com/NZywjjI5Kb— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) November 14, 2024 “Wild place New York,” Aspinall wrote on the video. Though Jones and Aspinall are not scheduled to fight, tensions between the two have been at an all-time high. Jones—the greatest fighter in the history of the light heavyweight division and arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter of all time—won a vacant heavyweight title with a dominant submission of Ciryl Gane at UFC 285, but was unable to defend his title in a scheduled bout against Miocic at UFC 295 after suffering a pectoral injury. In Jones’ absence, Aspinall defeated Sergei Pavlovich to claim an interim title and has already successfully defended it once, while Jones and Miocic have remained focused on their duel that was re-booked for Nov. 16. Jones has given a number of reasons for not acknowledging Aspinall’s suggestion of a unification bout, most recently saying Aspinall is “such an assh*le that I don’t want to do business with him.”

Jon Jones | Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images Jon Jones finally defends his heavyweight title this weekend when he faces Stipe Miocic in the main event of UFC 309. It’s a fight nearly two years in the making and could possibly be the last dance for both of the future Hall of Famers. How can each man walk away Saturday as the champion and what are the most important parts of this long-awaited matchup? Let’s dive in. Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images Jon Jones Paths to Victory for Jon Jones at UFC 309 What is there to say about Jon Jones that hasn’t already been said? Jones is universally agreed to be one of the greatest fighter of all time and the greatest light heavyweight ever. At his peak, Jones was a tour de force of imagination and execution, capable of seemingly anything inside of the cage. In the early stages of his career, Jones was all creativity and violence; the rare kind of talent who fought like an action hero, except the stuff he did actually worked. As time went on and he got older, Jones then morphed from a chaotic dervish of destruction into a cerebral assassin who minimized risk with a sniping jab and his patented oblique kick to slowly diminish his opposition over 25 minutes. Then, Jones took three years off to move up to heavyweight and, in his return fight up a weight class, Jones showed a ruthless efficiency in going back to his grappling roots. So which version of Jones will show up Saturday? All of them? None? In truth, we don’t really know. Jones is probably the most talented fighter of all time but he’s also very likely declining (his transparent refusal to fight Tom Aspinall hints that Jones himself may be aware of this fact). He’s 37 and been fighting professionally for 16 years. That’s a lot of wear and tear on the body and given how rarely he’s fought in recent years, it is very hard to feel confident in what version of Jones shows up Saturday. Fortunately, it probably doesn’t matter. If Jones wants to stay standing, Miocic can’t take him down, and his particular brand of out-fighting is well-suited against Miocic, who doesn’t have the best footwork and struggles to close range. On the other hand, perhaps Jones decides the safest course of action is to put Miocic on the mat where Miocic has never shown to be much of a threat. Miocic can wrestle but Jones is better there and should have enough horsepower to force the issue and pursue victory that way as well. My best guess is that Jones does a bit of both, drawing Miocic in with a striking battle before changing levels and getting takedowns. Once on top, Jones is (well, was and may still be) a terrifying force of nature with elbows and ground-and-pound, so he should have the run of play in this scenario. Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC Paths to victory for Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 For all the question marks around Jones in this fight, Stipe Miocic somehow has more. The two-time heavyweight champion is 42 years old, has not fought in over three years and hasn’t won a fight in over four years. He currently has no wins over fighters who compete in the UFC. There’s a reason people are entirely writing him off on Saturday. Then again, being written off is sort of par for the course for Miocic. Even as he rose up the ranks and began putting together the most successful résumé ever for a UFC heavyweight, the Cleveland native never really felt like a generational champion. There was always a sense that Miocic was a placeholder until the next great heavyweight showed up. Except they never did and he kept going to work, punching in, and getting wins. Well, he’s going to have to do the same on Saturday. Again, we don’t really know what to expect from either guy but if we go by their most recent performances, Miocic has an uphill battle ahead of him. Jones is certainly the superior grappler and the better athlete. Also—and I mean this as respectfully as possible—Jones has a much better team. It took Miocic nearly two full fights with Daniel Cormier to realize he should attack the body, despite Jones putting that very thing on tape against him! It’s a fair bet that if either man comes into Saturday with some brilliant game plan, it’s probably Jones. So where are Miocic’s advantages? On the feet. Don’t get me wrong, Jones is probably the better kickboxer of the two (and he’s vastly superior in the clinch because Jones is one of the greatest clinch fighters ever) but Jones is very beatable in a striking match. The biggest weakness Jones has on the feet is he’s risk averse to the point of a problem. This is a guy who barely scraped out a win over Thiago Santos—who blew out both his knees during the fight—because he would not do anything for fear of getting hit back. Young Jon Jones would have obliterated Dominick Reyes, but Jones should have lost to Reyes primarily because Reyes took chances and Jones will not. So the biggest thing for Miocic is to simply adopt the Dricus du Plessis methodology of “eff it, I’ll keep throwing, eventually it’ll hurt him.” Along those same lines, power is the one definitive edge Miocic has over Jones. Stipe is not a Francis Ngannou-level puncher, but he’s a darn good one and though Jones has shown a very good chin, he also clearly doesn’t want to get hit. Miocic needs to make this messy early and land some shots to put that reticence into Jones and make him clam up. The more comfortable Jones is in the cage, the worse it is for his opponents, and they way to make him uncomfortable is to hit him. Finally, it’s never been a huge weapon in his arsenal, but I hope Miocic has been working on low kicks. Jones’s stance and spindly stems make him an ideal target for chopping the legs out from under him, limiting movement, scoring points, and taking away his explosion. Stipe needs to chop that wood to have any chance in this fight. One Big Thing The outcome of most high level fights depends on dozens of different things, but frankly, it’s a lot to list all of those out. Instead, let’s simplify things by determining the One Big Thing that will determine Saturday’s winner. Does heavyweight matter? This is Jones’s second fight at heavyweight and he’s reportedly smaller for this matchup than he was for the fight with Ciryl Gane. More importantly, Jones appears to have no interest in sticking around at heavyweight and continues to suggest he wants to fight dudes his size. Maybe that’s all a game, or maybe Jones really isn’t comfortable in this weight class. After all, the people who gave Jones the most difficult time in his career were simply the largest guys he fought (save Gane). If Stipe comes out and puts mitts on Jones and he can’t take the shots the same as he did at 205 pounds, things get very interesting very quickly. One Small Thing Now we know the single most important factor of Saturday’s main event, but what about something else entirely that almost certainly won’t happen but if it does could change everything. Are the MMA gods paying attention? The buildup for this fight has been among the most frustrating to watch in years. A couple of month ago Jones was teasing he might fight Tom Aspinall after the Stipe fight. Then it turned into “I’m probably retiring.” Then in the last couple of weeks the Jones narrative shifted to “Actually I want to fight Alex Pereira and Tom Aspinall doesn’t deserve it” and he admitted that Stipe is a good stylistic matchup for him coming off an injury. This all culminated this week at Media Day where Jones entirely dismissed Aspinall as an opponent, said he only wants to fight fun matchups with “guys my size” despite being heavyweight champion, stated outright that beating Ciryl Gane was meaningless, and then issued an ultimatum of “either it’s Pereira or I retire.” It’s an astonishingly shameless admission that Jones is not looking for challenges, he’s looking for easy paydays. Jones is in his Floyd Mayweather era and for whatever reason the UFC is going along with it. But the MMA gods are not so pliable. It would truly be the funniest thing in the history of this sport if Jones went through all of this ridiculousness and then ultimately got knocked out by the 42-year-old firefighter who hasn’t fought since 2021. And he is certainly giving the MMA gods plenty of reasons to make it so. Prediction Perhaps you could tell from everything above, but I don’t think much of this fight. Even if you could take a time machine and pluck the perfect versions of themselves, I don’t think Miocic has much to offer Jones in a fight, and this is far from that. Jones is still somewhat near his peak while Miocic is well beyond it, and I suspect he gets rolled up in short order. Jon Jones def. Stipe Miocic via TKO (12-6 elbows) — Round 1, 3:41

Jon Jones and Adam Catterall | TNT Sports, YouTube Jon Jones doesn’t want to hear anymore Tom Aspinall questions. On Wednesday, Jones refused to sit down with TNT Sports reporter Adam Catterall in anticipation of receiving more questions about the UFC interim champion, who is on friendly terms with Catterall. Jones defends his heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic this Saturday at UFC 309 in New York and in the build-up to the event he has frequently been asked whether he plans to meet Aspinall in the future to unify their belts. Watch a clip of Jones making a quick exit from the interview room below (h/t Championship Rounds): Jon Jones refused to do an interview with Adam from TNT Sports because of his ties with Tom Aspinall “Common sense tells me what type of questions I’m just going to get asked.” @ufcontnt #UFC #MMA #UFC309pic.twitter.com/hRZ4YtkSsy— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) November 14, 2024 “Hey, I’m not going to do this interview,” Jones said after initially greeting Catterall. “No, because it’s going to be an Aspinall-fest.” Jones is later seen speaking to Catterall in the lobby, telling him it was “nothing personal” but “I see how close you [and Aspinall] are common sense tells me what type of questions I was going to get asked.” Catterall tells Jones, “You’re entitled to it. Speak to who you want to.” Shortly after, Jones re-entered the interview room for an interview with Nick Peet of TNT Sports. Jones is not asked any questions about Aspinall in the video, which can be seen below. Jones is widely hailed as one of the greatest fighters of all time, primarily based on his work in the UFC light heavyweight division where he went undefeated for a decade (outside of a controversial disqualification loss to Matt Hamill), recorded numerous title defenses, and defeated a long list of legends and future UFC Hall of Famers. In March 2023, Jones defeated Ciryl Gane to capture a vacant heavyweight title. Miocic was to challenge Jones at UFC 295 the following December, but a pectoral injury forced Jones out of the matchup and out of action for several months. In their absence, Aspinall defeated Sergei Pavlovich to claim an interim title. With the Jones-Miocic matchup pushed back a year, Aspinall successfully defended his title with a win over Curtis Blaydes this past July. Since winning the interim belt, he has campaigned for a fight with Jones, but Jones has repeatedly said he has no interest in fighting Aspinall. Aspinall is set to weigh in as the backup for Saturday’s main event and has said he hopes to convince either Jones or Miocic to stick around to face him regardless of who is victorious.

Jon Jones | Esther Lin, MMA Fighting The UFC 309 press conference features the entire main card from Saturday’s pay-per-view at Madison Square Garden in New York. UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones, two-time heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic, and lightweight contenders Charles Oliveira and Michael Chandler are some of the stars that will answer questions from the media Thursday evening. Watch a live stream video of the UFC 309 press conference above. The event is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. ET.

Jake Paul | Esther Lin, Most Valuable Promotions Mike Tyson and Jake Paul. The time is now. Maybe that four-word cliché doesn’t do justice to the upcoming (momentous occasion?circus act? farce?) spectacle, but what else is there left to say about a boxing match few asked for, even fewer expected, and that, in all likelihood, will go down as one of the most watched fights in combat sports history? When Paul and Tyson step into the ring Friday in Arlington, Texas, anyone with a Netflix subscription is just a few clicks away from seeing the infamous influencer take on a legend of the ring who turned 58 years in between when this fight was originally booked and when it is actually going down. Both fighters have promised this will not be a mere exhibition and that one will be left lying on the canvas. So how will it all go down? The MMA Fighting staff knuckled down to give their best guesses as to how Tyson vs. Paul will play out, from the possibility of a regrettable eight-rounder to *gasp* someone going down for the count. Jed Meshew: We’ve written plenty about this fight already and a week close to the event my thoughts remain the same: this should not be taking place. Tyson is damn near a senior citizen and while he looks amazing for 58 years old, he’s still 58 years old. Tyson likely shouldn’t be fighting anyone at this point in time, but he certainly shouldn’t be fighting a man 30 years his junior. And I think Jake Paul knows it. While Paul has talked a big game about knocking out Tyson and this being the springboard to bigger “real” boxing matches, he would have to be the dimmest bulb in the box not to realize how bad KO’ing Tyson would look for him. Yes, he’s made a career of beating old MMA fighters up, but Tyson is entirely more beloved and much, much older than those people. If Paul goes out there and thunks him, I think the backlash will be severe. Add in that Tyson is probably physically incapable of putting on a real boxing match at this point and I strongly suspect the most likely outcome on Saturday is Jake Paul simply moves around the ring, jabs, and carries Mike to a decision in a glorified sparring session. Everyone gets paid, no one gets hurt. Prediction: Paul def. Tyson via unanimous decision Mike Heck: I’m with Jed on a lot of this. I absolutely have concerns. but I can at least take some solace in knowing that Tyson looked a billion and a half times better than Evander Holyfield did during his fight week with Vitor Belfort. In that fight, I think Holyfield understood the assignment. Belfort absolutely did not. The former UFC champ won, but he hasn’t recovered from being part of one of the saddest moments of the past decade. As I said in our roundtable, I think—and I truly hope—we’ll get a Tyson vs. Jones-esque bout. Tyson has shown he can do the 65-70 percent thing, but still look very aggressive in doing so. Paul, as a showman, will likely do the same. I’ll agree with the above, Paul via decision in what I hope will be a fun experience where Paul can pay tribute to one of his heroes, while the former heavyweight champ has one last great moment in the ring with whatever faculties he has left in place. Prediction: Paul def. Tyson via unanimous decision Guilherme Cruz: I would love to come here and say you guys are all insane and a 58-year-old legend can still get it done even though he needs a cane to walk properly every time he leaves a plane, or maybe he would give us a wonderful real-life version of Rocky vs. Mason Dixon, but that would be me fooling myself. When this fight first got booked, I thought Tyson could get it done. He definitely hits hard, he’s way more experienced than Paul, but I’ve changed my mind after seeing so many (short) clips of Tyson training. Rafael Cordeiro is a legendary coach brave enough to stand in front of one of the most violent men humanity has ever seen, but all we see is Tyson throwing the same combination over and over and over again. Unless Tyson is cocooned back to his 30s, it won’t end well for him. I can’t stop thinking of Belfort rudely putting Holyfield away in seconds, and I fear that’s what we might get Friday. I choose to believe Paul is smart enough to play the game and carry Tyson for a proper sendoff. Prediction: Paul def. Tyson via split decision Alexander K. Lee: Where we’re going, we don’t need scorecards. Unfortunately. If everyone involved is smart, this should be a sanctioned bout in name only with Paul and Tyson agreeing to go 80 percent tops for 24 minutes. That’s a big if though and I fully expect something to go haywire Friday. All it will take is one of the fighters (say, Paul) going a touch too hard in there, causing the other fighter (say, Tyson) to snap and revert to his basest instincts: that being throwing punches as hard as he can until a referee tells him to stop. It was Tyson himself who famously said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face,” and as much as Tyson probably wants to stick to the script (metaphorically speaking, of course) how can he resist chasing one last moment of glory? One last knockout to truly cap off his career? The bad news is that even if this happens and the fight actually becomes a fight, it’s the younger Paul most likely to score a knockout that will be a little impressive and a lot depressing. Let’s hope we’ve got a referee who knows what they’re doing so the ending isn’t worse than it has to be. Prediction: Paul def. Tyson via fifth-round KO Damon Martin: It’s difficult to imagine anybody feeling great after this fight is over. The whole ordeal just feels dirty considering Paul—a 27-year-old social influencer-turned-boxing enthusiast—is taking on Tyson, once heralded as the most ferocious knockout artist on the planet… around 35 years ago. Yes, folks the last time Tyson seemed untouchable in the ring came all the way back in 1989 when he was still undefeated and seven months away from losing to Buster Douglas. You could even argue Tyson hasn’t actually thrown a meaningful punch in over 19 years and that’s if you count Kevin McBride as meaningful! Now make no mistake, Tyson is in far better shape than your average 58-year-old. He’s probably more fit than most 38-year-old men, but the vast majority of those folks aren’t trying to take a professional boxing match for the first time in nearly 20 years. To his credit, Tyson looked pretty good when he sparred Roy Jones Jr. a few years ago but then you have to remember Jones is way, way past his prime and actually lost fairly recently to former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis—in a boxing match! Yes, Tyson still hits hard and he’s probably forgotten more about boxing than Paul will ever know. Still, this is essentially a senior citizen signing up for a fist fight against a younger, bigger athlete who—for better or worse—really does hit hard. And because combat sports is almost allergic to giving us a happy ending, the sad reality is this fight probably ends with Tyson laid out and the promoters scrambling to justify making this matchup in the first place. Prediction: Paul def. Tyson via third-round KO