The UFC’s greatest light heavyweight was better than the UFC’s greatest heavyweight — at least on the one night that mattered.
Jon Jones successfully defended his heavyweight championship for the first time, defeating former two-time champ Stipe Miocic via third-round TKO to cap Saturday’s UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden and tie up business that would have been completed a year ago at the same arena — blame Jones’ torn pectoral muscle for the yearlong delay.
As strikers, Jones and Miocic were competitive early. But Jones’ wrestling advantage led to some of his finest moments. And by Round 3, the champ had Miocic backing away after a right hand, the 42-year-old growing weary against the 37-year-old Jones.
Miocic withstood a stiff left hand, but not the spinning heel kick Jones sniped to the liver, crumpling the Ohio native for good.
In the co-main event, Charles Oliveira secured his place in line for the next shot at the lightweight title he once held, outpointing Michael Chandler over five rounds to hand the former Bellator lightweight champ his fourth loss at the World’s Most Famous Arena. But not without surviving a last-ditch hailstorm from the man the Brazilian beat in 2021 to claim his crown.
Oliveira’s grappling prowess proved to be the difference-maker for the bulk of the bout, with the UFC’s all-time submission wins leader finding his way into advantageous positions in each round.
But Chandler was game as ever. With no path to victory but to finish, he nearly got Oliveira out of there. A hard right hand wounded Oliveira, and Chandler found his way on top raining down strikes to the head, with referee Keith Peterson seeming to give a hard look at stopping the action. Oliveira managed to survive, take Chandler’s back once again, and hang on for the win.
Blue-chip middleweight prospect Bo Nickal moved to 7-0 as a pro, defeating veteran Paul Craig on points, but won no new fans with the nature of his victory.
Nickal, a three-time NCAA champion wrestler at Penn State, and the Scottish submission ace threw their grappling chops to the side and instead engaged in a tepid kickboxing match, with the up-and-comer finding success with overhand lefts throughout.
Enough had clipped Craig to open a cut near his right eyebrow by the final bell, but a solid “overrated” chant from the fans in attendance told a great deal about the entertainment value of the contest.
“I went out there; I dominated for 15 minutes,” Nickal said in 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 were lightweight Michael Ruffy and women’s flyweight Viviane Araujo picking up decision victories over James Llontop and Karine Silva, respectively.
On the preliminary portion of the event, Bronx native Ramiz Brahimaj knocked out Mickey Gall, of Green Brook, N.J., in the first round of their welterweight clash.
“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, told 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 45th appearance for the promotion, cinched in a tight guillotine choke for a first-round victory over Damon Jackson to give him his record-extending 27 victories since his UFC debut in 2008.
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