Anthony Smith has a prediction for the upcoming UFC 309 event. He expects Stipe Miocic to face Tom Aspinall in an emergency match. Interim champion Tom Aspinall has been announced as the official backup for the heavyweight title bout between Jon Jones and Miocic.
It will occur at the top of the bill on the November 16 card in New York’s Madison Square Garden. Jones has clearly stated that he will not step into the octagon to fight Aspinall. But as we all know, Dana White declared Aspinall the backup fighter at UFC 309.
Tom Aspinall as Backup Fighter
Commentators and the UFC world have raised a lot of questions about Jones or Miocic’s willingness to fight such a dangerous opponent on short notice. The famous commentator and a good friend of Khabib Nurmagomedov, Daniel Cormier, also believes that there is zero percent chance that any of the UFC 309 main event fighters will change their schedule and fight Aspinall.
Anthony recently appeared on the ‘Believe You Me’ Podcast. They discussed the different aspects of the upcoming events, including UFC 309. According to Smith, Aspinall is a good fighter, but the other fighters are still legends. They can face the Interimweight Champion, but he picked Miocic as the fighter, who will face Aspinall in UFC 309. Both Jones and Miocic have been out of the octagon matrix for some time now.
Anthony Smith about Stipe Miocic
Jones’s last fight was against Ciryl Gane in March 2023 which Jones secured a win over the challenger making him the Heavyweight Champion. On the other hand, Miocic is not much different from Jones as he has not entered the cage for a long time but he was a two-time UFC Heavyweight Champion. He lost his belt to Francis Ngannou (The Predator) in March of 2021 .
Anthony Smith said this about Stipe Miocic. “He just doesn’t. Whether it’s Jon or it’s Tom Aspinall, he’s going to train about the same. It’s not going to change much. He has that mentality where it’s not about what that guy is going to do and how I’m going to react to it, his whole mindset is flipped. Here’s what I’m going to do and he has to deal with it. That’s how Stipe’s mindset has always been, so whether it’s Jon or whether it’s Tom, it doesn’t change anything for Stipe.”
Final Thoughts
After all the analysis and seeing Jones backing up from Aspinall, Smith and Miocic concluded that if the fight with Jones is delayed, then Miocic is going for Aspinall. They made it clear that they are not pushing Jones to pull out from the fight but in these situations, a fighter has to make hard decisions.
In these situations, a fighter should not care about the benefit of the company, fans, or anyone else but himself and his legacy. What are your thoughts about the upcoming fight between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic? Feel free to use the comments section to share your thoughts.
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