Jon Jones won the UFC heavyweight title in his first-ever fight in the weight class in March 2023 — but he wasn’t entirely satisfied by the experience.
Jones, 37, returns to the UFC cage in this weekend’s UFC 309 main event where he will take on Stipe Miocic in a long-delayed bout that is rumoured to serve as one or both of their retirements after record-breaking careers. But former longtime 205-pound champ Jones enters the bout at a significant experience disadvantage in the weight category compared to Miocic, who has fought each of his 24 professional bouts in the heavyweight division.
By comparison, Jones’ total experience at heavyweight stands at the 124 seconds it took him to defeat Ciyrl Gane to claim the then-vacant heavyweight championship.
But in a perfect world, Jones says he would have wanted that fight to have lasted a little longer.
“Beating Ciryl Gane was an amazing memory and experience,” Jones told ESPN. “I remember one of the first major feelings I had was a little bit of disappointment. I remember sitting on top of the cage and celebrating my victory, taking a deep breath and thinking, ‘Man, that was fast. That was fast.’
“It was three years leading up to that, a lot of prayer, a lot of meditation, a lot of teamwork, and for it to be over in two minutes and four seconds, I kind of felt robbed in a way. The next emotion that I felt was just gratefulness that I didn’t get hurt and that I did my job, what I came to do, and did it flawlessly. So mixed emotions — bittersweet.”
In the UFC 309 main event this weekend inside Madison Square Garden in New York City, Jones faces one of the sternest tests of his entire career. A similar performance as the brief one that proved to much for Gane 18 months ago, and Jones’ legacy receives another chapter.
