Stipe Miocic wants you to know he plans on knocking Jon Jones out. What happens after that, he’s more tight lipped on.
Miocic hasn’t stepped foot in the octagon since a nasty 2021 loss to Francis Ngannou at UFC 260 that cost him the heavyweight title. At that time the grizzled Cincinnati native was 38 years old. Now he’s 42, and he doesn’t give a damn what you think of his age or the gap in his resume.
“It’s been great,” Miocic said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “Giving my body a rest. In training I can take a day off and not worry. Like, if I’m beat up let’s just do something different today. I’m older, 42, I listen to my body more, it’s great.”
“Honestly, it’s been a blessing. There no question [I’m healthier than ever]. I’m faster, I’m stronger, I have more of my tools. I’m ready and there’s no question that time off [helped]. And people might not think that but I don’t care, I know where I’m at and I know what I’ve done.”
Miocic fights Jones at UFC 309 this Saturday (Nov. 16th, 2024) at Madison Square Garden, and he comes in with the confidence of a man who has more heavyweight title fight wins than anyone else, despite being the betting underdog.
“I believe any fight I have, I’m the toughest match-up for them,” he said. “Because it’s not just me, it’s my coaches, we have always come with a great gameplan, they can improvise, they make everything right and as long as I go with the gameplan and listen, we’ll be good.”
“First Francis [Ngannou] fight, underdog. Junior Dos Santos, underdog. A lot of fights I was the underdog. I’ll be fine.”
So he’s getting finished in the first round
And he got KO’d.
Anyone with this kind of headline is obviously being covering up for. If he was actually fast and strong, why the need to point it out?
Last heavyweight Jon fought who was as good as Stipe?
Lol no he’s not.
Daniel Cormier
Ok fair, but I personally feel that DC was better at hw. Probably wouldn’t have made a difference.
And there it is. He’s already giving himself excuses to not put in the work. Can’t blame the guy, working out hard at that age, well you just think you’re about to have a heart attack all the time.
He feels good because hes not pushing himself.
Training should be hell so your fight isnt.
He’s trying his best to sell this fight 
Epic
^^^^ UG Never Lets Me Down
And he’s probably riding a plateau rather than getting any better. Honestly, his best game plan is to get every fight genius in the world to review tapes and come up with something for him cause he’s not learning new shit at that age.
I’d like to hear him try. I mean, I hope the Embeddeds come with subtitles.
This kind of idiot, archaic thinking is unfortunately extremely common in MMA.
Most fighters are seriously compromised on fight night due to this mentality.
Fighters - the most overtrained athletes on the planet.
Training shouldn’t be “hell”.
Training should prepare you for peak performance at a specified time and place (fight night).
