- Jones and Miocic will finally do battle this weekend at Madison Square Garden
- They were scheduled to face each other last year before Jones suffered an injury and withdrew
- The pair answered questions from the media at a press conference ahead of the fight
Jon Jones left Stipe Miocic with a confused look on his face as he issued a warning during their showdown at Thursday’s UFC 309 pre-fight press conference.
Jones and Miocic meet Saturday in the octagon of Madison Square Garden with the heavyweight title the former won against Ciryl Gane on the line.
It’s a fight that has been a long time in the making, with the clash originally scheduled for UFC 295 in 2023 before Jones suffered a pectoral tear that put him out of action for several months.
Now he puts his undefeated record (save for one disqualification) on the line when he takes on 42-year-old veteran Miocic, who has had an illustrious career in the sport in his own right.
The pair have remained respectful heading into this super fight, but there now appears to be some legitimate tension.
Thousands of fans were in attendance at MSG on Thursday as the two fighters answered questions from the media.
Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic faced off for the first time on Thursday during the pre-fight press conference
And there was a bizarre moment when the rivals took part in the traditional showdown at the end of the promotional event.
Jones walked up to Miocic before saying, “Don’t ever talk about my kids again.”
Miocic looked bewildered and replied, “I’ve never mentioned your children.”
Jones had revealed during the press conference that he had taken offense to two comments made by Miocic in recent weeks.
“Everybody loves first responders and I actually respect men and women in the armed forces, law enforcement and things like that, so I made it a point to try to be very respectful to him,” Jones said. ‘There have now been two scenarios.
“First scenario he said, ‘My kids will never look at me like I’m a ******.’ That was a direct attack on me and my family and my relationship with my children.
‘The second attack was him calling me a ***. So the respect is kind of out the window and we’ll see that on Saturday.”
And Jones added that the fight had now become ‘very personal’ for him.
Jones told Miocic never to talk about his children again because he refused to shake his opponent’s hand
In response, Miocic tried to downplay the issue, more or less shrugging his shoulders and insisting he didn’t even remember saying it.
“I don’t even remember saying that ‘my kids will never look at me like I’m a ******.’ That wasn’t anything immediate for him,” Miocic said.
“When I said bring it on, b****, he almost yelled at me and told me he was going to beat me up in front of a whole arena of people. Sorry for defending myself, my apologies.”