Former two-time UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic might be the most decorated champ in the division’s history, but he won’t be fighting for the title next. With the top spot in the division open thanks to Francis Ngannou’s departure from the UFC, Miocic was hoping to face Jon Jones for the vacant title, and expressed his disappointment in a recent interview with The MMA Hour.
Stipe Miocic, however, will never say never. “They went with Ciryl. I’m not a matchmaker, I can’t tell you [why]. I don’t know. [The UFC] just went a different direction, so they said maybe July […]
Miocic Wanted Jon Jones Fight
Yeah, I definitely was [disappointed]. [Jones] is great fight, it’s a great matchup for me, but at the end of the day, it’s not my decision unfortunately. But we’ll see what happens. I think those two guys are going to go out and have a fight, they’re both gamers, and I’d love to get a crack at one of those guys, whoever wins it.”
Miocic, now 40 years old, did admit that factors from his personal life affect his availability for fights. For one, he’s a full-time firefighter, and for another he and his wife welcomed a second child in August 2021.
“I had a lot going on, man. Just spending time with my family and had personal things going on that I needed take care of, but overall I’ve just been busy, and the way things shook out with these fights, it just didn’t happen the way it was supposed to. I was ready to go but just never got the call.
There’s times when they needed me and I said yes, and then it was just kind of, ‘We went in a different direction.’ What are you going to do? Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t.”
However, Miocic isn’t quite done yet. He wants to be remembered as one of the greatest heavyweights to set foot in the Octagon, and hopes to take on the winner of Jones vs Gane later this year. After years of stagnation at the top of the heavyweight division, Stipe Miocic’s return to the fray against either former light heavyweight champ Jon Jones or former interim heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane – either of whom could hold the belt – will surely be an exciting time.
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