It has been well over three years since fight fans last saw Stipe Miocic step inside the Octagon but that all changes on Saturday night. At UFC 309, he will return to challenge Jon Jones for the heavyweight title at Madison Square Garden.
Miocic’s time away from competition, not to mention the fact that his last outing was a knockout loss to Francis Ngannou, is why many are finding it difficult to predict what we can expect from the former champion. Over three years off is going to impact any fighter, especially a 42-year old fighter who will be taking on arguably the best to ever do it.
How this will impact the fight is even more of a grey area because Miocic is a very private individual who is rarely in the limelight, especially when he isn’t fighting. He believes that the time away has had positive benefits rather than drawbacks on his current physical and mental sharpness, as he spoke about in a recent interview with Shakiel Mahjouri.
“Definitely, recharging my whole body. My mind, my body, just making sure I’m healed up and feeling good and just, you know, I’m good.”
Another cause for concern came around following rumors that during his attendance at UFC 295 when he was originally scheduled to face Jones last November, Miocic was walking with a limp. He clarified that this wasn’t an issue and that he was simply walking to his seat with his wife whilst holding her hand which meant that he was walking a bit slower because she was behind him.
“Yeah I was doing that. Yeah, I don’t know what limp I was having but yeah, whatever they want to think I mean it’s fine. Yeah, I saw that too. It was nice, thanks for pointing it out.”
