Stipe Miocic’s comeback title fight may be in jeopardy.
The current Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) champion, Jon Jones, made his intentions clear once his return bout with Ciryl Gane was made official. “Bones,” 35, promised mixed martial arts (MMA) fans around the globe at least two more fights, indicating Gane and Miocic as his ideal match ups. With Gane out of the way, Miocic has been the next target ever since.
Unfortunately for Jones and Miocic, their originally desired July 8, 2023, date in Las Vegas, Nevada for UFC 290 never came together. Now, it might not happen next at all, according to three-time UFC title challenger-turned-analyst and insider, Chael Sonnen.
“I’m hearing strong rumors that Stipe and Jones is going to go up in flames and that Sergei Pavlovich vs. Jones is happening in August,” Sonnen told Thiccc Boy. “Strong enough that I can tell you that’s at least being pursued. I don’t know where they are in agreeing, but that’s at least being pursued. And if you did have partners in Australia, you promised them ‘Izzy’ [Israel Adesanya] and you said, ‘Look, I can’t deliver but I can bring you Jones and Pavlovich, are we good?’ They’d probably say, ‘Yeah, we’re good.’
“I have to give Jon Jones credit, I really do and that pains me,” he continued. “I got to give him credit here because people have said he was going to fight Stipe then he was going to retire. It’s like well, hold on, people. Let me remind you of one thing. When you talk about the mindset, you talk like Jon Jones doesn’t have the courage, let me just remind you he thought he was fighting Francis, he agreed to fight Stipe, and he ended up in there with Ciryl.”
UFC is set to return to Australia with a Sydney pay-per-view, UFC 293, on Sept. 10, 2023. With the event’s announcement came rumblings that the Middleweight champion, Adesanya, was being targeted to face the winner of Robert Whittaker vs. Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 290.
Currently ranked at No. 3 in the promotion’s Heavyweight rankings, the 40-year-old Miocic (20-4) hasn’t fought since losing his title to Francis Ngannou via second round knockout in March 2021. Pavlovich (18-1), on the other hand, sits at No. 2 and has won three fights by knockout in that window.
I’m hard
Lol no
Especially with “talks of Tyson Furry”. Dana makes a statement offering Tyson a fight (that we all know won’t happen), but if Jones thinks there’s even a 1% chance that will happen he’s not fighting anyone
Inject this into my veins!
It’s Chael though so most likely bullshit
Why australia? How does it benefit the ufc to have this fight in australia? 1 fucking ppv a year in vegas unbelievable
Why Not ?
Because its a vegas company .fights especially big ones should be in vegas .going to australia to lose money on a big fight tells me they are trying to sink the ship
Only logical reason would be they have that stadium that holds a shit load of niggaz
Vegas holds 15,000
The Australian arena did 56,000 with Ronda vs Holly
The t-mobile center is plenty big enough .doesnt matter because australia doesnt have the fanbase they are going to end up giving tickets away
Being totally honest, i cant think of another active fighter for which this premise is enticing. Gaethje?
IIRC Many Hi Profile Fights happen in other States and Countries
All of them now .they have had 1 ppv in vegas to date and the year is half over
15,000 in Vegas, 56,000 in Australia, probably more if they arrange the set up differently
56000 seats for 10k of the shittiest fans .australia doesnt have the fanbase to even sniff filling that stadium .
They can’t pack people into the Raider Roomba?
I actually just read the Rousey fight added 15,000 seats and it was 70,000. Literally 5 times bigger than a Vegas card.
Yeah because they didnt fudge those numbers .if you add in even the most casual fans you dont get half that many in all of australia