Stipe Miocic does not expect heavyweight to be smooth sailings for Jon Jones.
Jones recently vacated his UFC light heavyweight title ahead of a planned move to heavyweight, a division currently ruled by Stipe Miocic. Some fighters have suggested Jones will have an easier time competing at heavyweight, a perspective Miocic strongly disagrees with.
“I think heavyweight might be even easier for Jon Jones than light heavyweight,” Ngannou recently told ESPN (via Adam Guillen Jr. of MMA Mania). “Obviously, heavyweights they hit harder, but it’s not the same technique, it’s not the same fight IQ."
Miocic takes the opposite stance and believes heavyweight power will be Jones' undoing.
“Listen, we’re big boys with smaller gloves on,” Miocic said. “It just takes one (punch) I don’t care if you don’t hit hard you can still get caught I don’t care who you are. I look at my first fight against ‘D.C.,’” he continued. “I’ve been hit with everything and didn’t go down, but ‘D.C.’ caught me with a shot I didn’t see and I went down. So I don’t think it will be that much easier especially when you have all that weight to worry about. It’s not 205 and you got guys up to 265 if not bigger who don’t cut weight.”
Champion @stipemiocic doesn't agree with Francis Ngannou's assessment that fighting at heavyweight "might be even easier" for Jon Jones.
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) August 24, 2020
(via @marc_raimondi) pic.twitter.com/JWi2KpWS82
The heavyweight champion won’t have to worry about fighting Jones immediately because a rematch with Francis Ngannou is likely next for Miocic.
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