Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic gets ‘very personal’

NEW YORK – Jon Jones’ behavior toward Stipe Miocic has taken a turn during UFC 309 fight week, and with the fight more than 48 hours away, it’s clear things have gotten personal.

Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) returns from a more than 20-month layoff Saturday when he puts his heavyweight title on the line for the first time against former two-time champion Miocic (20-4 MMA, 14-4 UFC) in the main event at Madison Square Garden (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPNews, ESPN+

After initially showing respect to Miocic in the months leading up to this week, reigning champion Jones said he was upset when Miocic called him a “b*tch” – “bring it on, b*tch” was his exact words – on the UFC 309 “Countdown” show. Jones also claims Miocic said he was a bad example for his children given his history of personal missteps, and now Jones’ stance has changed.

“Everybody likes first responders, and I actually respect the men and women in the armed forces and law enforcement, stuff like that, so I made it a point to try to be very respectful to him,” Jones told MMA Junkie and other reporters at the UFC 309 press conference. “There’s been two scenarios now. The first scenario he said, ‘my kids will never look at me like I’m an a-hole.’ It was a direct attack on me and my family and my relationship with my children. The second attack was him calling me an ab*tch. So respect is kind of out the window, and we’ll see that on Saturday.”

When asked directly about how things have changed, Jones said, “It’s very personal for me, yeah.”

Miocic seemed stunned by Jones’ comments. He said as Jones claimed he wanted to defeat him in front of a sold-out crowd in New York and in front of the world, he told him to “bring it on, b*tch.” How that made things so personal is lost on Miocic, but it doesn’t matter to him either.

“I don’t even remember saying, ‘My kids don’t want to look at me like an asshole,'” Miocic said. “It wasn’t anything direct to him. And when I said ‘bring it on, b*tch,’ he basically called me out and told me he was going to beat my ass in front of an entire arena of people. So sorry to I was defending myself. I apologize.

“I think every fight is personal, no matter what. You are fighting another man in the octagon. It is always personal.”

For more on the card, visit the MMA Junkies event hub for UFC 309.