The UFC’s best gentle heavyweight was higher than the UFC’s best heavyweight — at the least on the one evening that mattered.
Jon Jones efficiently defended his heavyweight championship for the primary time, defeating former two-time champ Stipe Miocic through third-round TKO to cap Saturday’s UFC 309 at Madison Sq. Backyard and tie up enterprise that may have been accomplished a yr in the past on the identical enviornment — blame Jones’ torn pectoral muscle for the yearlong delay.
As strikers, Jones and Miocic have been aggressive early. However Jones’ wrestling benefit led to a few of his most interesting moments. And by Spherical 3, the champ had Miocic backing away after a proper hand, the 42-year-old rising weary in opposition to the 37-year-old Jones.
Miocic withstood a stiff left hand, however not the spinning heel kick Jones sniped to the liver, crumpling the Ohio native for good.
Within the co-main occasion, Charles Oliveira secured his place in line for the subsequent shot on the light-weight title he as soon as held, outpointing Michael Chandler over 5 rounds handy the previous Bellator light-weight champ his fourth loss on the World’s Most Well-known Enviornment. However not with out surviving a last-ditch hailstorm from the person the Brazilian beat in 2021 to assert his crown.
Oliveira’s grappling prowess proved to be the difference-maker for the majority of the bout, with the UFC’s all-time submission wins chief discovering his approach into advantageous positions in every spherical.
However Chandler was sport as ever. With no path to victory however to complete, he almost acquired Oliveira out of there. A tough proper hand wounded Oliveira, and Chandler discovered his approach on high raining down strikes to the pinnacle, with referee Keith Peterson seeming to offer a tough take a look at stopping the motion. Oliveira managed to outlive, take Chandler’s again as soon as once more, and grasp on for the win.
Blue-chip middleweight prospect Bo Nickal moved to 7-0 as a professional, defeating veteran Paul Craig on factors, however gained no new followers with the character of his victory.
Nickal, a three-time NCAA champion wrestler at Penn State, and the Scottish submission ace threw their grappling chops to the aspect and as an alternative engaged in a tepid kickboxing match, with the up-and-comer discovering success with overhand lefts all through.
Sufficient had clipped Craig to open a minimize close to his proper eyebrow by the ultimate bell, however a stable “overrated” chant from the followers in attendance advised a terrific deal concerning the leisure worth of the competition.
“I went out there; I dominated for 15 minutes,” Nickal stated within the cage over vociferous boos. “[The fans] expect me to knock everybody out in 25 seconds or choke them out in a minute. And the reality is, these guys are all professional fighters that have been trained over a decade. I’ve been in this 2 ½, three years.”
Kicking off the pay-per-view broadcast have been light-weight Michael Ruffy and girls’s flyweight Viviane Araujo choosing up choice victories over James Llontop and Karine Silva, respectively.
On the preliminary portion of the occasion, Bronx native Ramiz Brahimaj knocked out Mickey Gall, of Inexperienced Brook, N.J., within the first spherical of their welterweight conflict.
“Man, it’s crazy. The only thing I can think of that would be bigger than this is fighting at Yankee Stadium,” Brahimaj, who turns 33 Sunday, advised reporters after the victory. “I don’t know if they could, but, hey, maybe they could. You never know.”
Sussex County, N.J., native Jim Miller, making his UFC record-extending forty fifth look for the promotion, cinched in a good guillotine choke for a first-round victory over Damon Jackson to offer him his record-extending 27 victories since his UFC debut in 2008.
