- Jones and Miocic will finally fight at Madison Square Garden this weekend
- They were due to meet last year before Jones suffered an injury and retired.
- The pair took questions from the media at a pre-fight press conference.
Jon Jones left Stipe Miocic with a confused look on his face when he issued a warning during their confrontation at Thursday’s UFC 309 pre-fight press conference.
Jones and Miocic will meet in the octagon at Madison Square Garden this Saturday with the heavyweight title that the former won against Ciryl Gane at stake.
It’s a fight that’s been a long time in the making, with the clash originally scheduled for UFC 295 in 2023 before Jones suffered a torn pectoral, putting him out of action for several months.
Now, he puts his undefeated record (barring a disqualification) on the line as he takes on veteran Miocic, 42, who in his own right has had an illustrious career in the sport.
The pair have been respectful leading up to this super fight, but now there appears to be some legitimate tension.
Thousands of fans attended MSG on Thursday as the two fighters answered questions from the media.
Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic faced off for the first time at Thursday’s pre-fight press conference.
The duo will finally fight for the heavyweight title after the fight was originally postponed.
And there was a strange moment when the rivals participated in the traditional confrontation at the end of the promotional event.
Jones approached Miocic before saying, “Don’t mention my kids again.”
Miocic seemed taken aback and responded, “I’ve never mentioned your kids.”
Jones had revealed during the press conference that he had taken offense to two comments from Miocic in recent weeks.
“Everybody likes first responders and I really respect the men and women in the military and law enforcement and things like that, so I made it a point to try to be very respectful to him,” Jones said. ‘There have been two scenarios now.
“In the first scenario he said, ‘My kids will never look at me like I’m an idiot.'” That was a direct attack on me, my family and my relationship with my children.
‘The second attack was him calling me an idiot. “So respect is a little out of control and we will see that on Saturday.”
And Jones added that the fight had now become “very personal” for him.
Jones told Miocic to never mention his children again because he refused to shake his opponent’s hand.
In response, Miocic attempted to downplay the issue while more or less shrugging his shoulders and insisting that he doesn’t even remember saying it.
“I don’t even remember saying ‘my kids will never look at me like I’m an asshole.’ That wasn’t a direct thing for him,” Miocic said.
‘When I said come on, bitch, he was practically yelling at me, telling me he was going to beat my ass in front of a whole arena of people. Sorry for defending myself, I apologize.’
Jones also declined a handshake.