Madison Square Garden will have to be big enough when it hosts the return of Jon Jones against Stipe Miočić. The UFC 309 main event will see Jones put his heavyweight title on the line in what could be his final fight. While Jones has often been considered the best pound-for-pound fighter inside the octagon, Miocic, a former two-time champion, dropped an Instagram post that had the fans backing him.

Both the fighters are coming off lengthy layoffs. Incidentally, Jones tore a pectoral muscle in October last year while training for his proposed UFC 295 fight against Miocic. He will compete for the first time in 20 months having stayed out of action since defeating Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 in March 2023. Meanwhile, Miocic has had a lengthier time off having last competed at UFC 260 in March 2021 in a losing effort against Francis Ngannou.

Hence, there have been rumors circulating about Miocic’s fitness ahead of the highly anticipated bout. In fact, interim champion Tony Aspinall also claimed that he heard “rumors that Stipe is potentially injured” last month and that at 42 he was going to be “injury prone.”

However, allaying concerns over his inactivity and age, Stipe recently took to Instagram to share a picture of his muscular physique. This surely caught the attention of the MMA faithful. The former heavyweight king is already an enormous man, standing tall at 6 feet 4 inches and weighing around 240 pounds, and his recent post left many of his fans in awe.

In the post, we can see Miocic sharing an image of his back from what seems like a training session. This post reminded fans that despite his long absence from UFC, the Ohio native remains a fearsome threat and Jon Jones will have to be at the top of his game to retain his title.

The fight was initially slated for UFC 295 before Jones’ injury postponed those plans. But now the fans would finally get to see them battle and UFC’s light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira has already added intrigue to the build-up. Pereira and Jones were hanging out at UFC 306 at the Las Vegas Sphere and the Brazilian offered to help out “Bones”

During a talk with Full Send MMA, Pereira revealed that he could help Jones prepare for his upcoming clash against Stipe Miočić. He said, “We’ve been talking a little bit about training together for a long time, but I think now it’s going to happen. His fight’s going to be in November. Every time you leave a fight, it takes a week or two to recover from small injuries. But I think I’ll have enough time to go over there.”

Pereira will defend his title against Khalil Rountree at UFC 307 on October 5 in Salt Lake City. Given how gruesome the fight can be, the champion will hope to come out unscathed if he is to spar with Jones in preparation for the Miocic bout.

For a long time, the Brazilian wished to move up a weight class establish himself as a three-division champion, and have the chance to compete against Jones. While that seems unlikely at this point, he will still have the opportunity to train with him. Pereira added, “People talk about us fighting, but people say he’s going to fight one time, once or twice more. I don’t know if I’ll be able to share the cage with him, but at least I want to get the experience of training with him.”

Nevertheless, Stipe Miočić doesn’t care who “Bones” trains with. He has been giving his all in his training sessions and his Instagram post has got the fans excited ahead of the big showdown.

Stipe Miocic eyes historic win as fans believe in the former champion

With Miocic out of action for over three years, it is easy to overlook his accomplishments. A two-time former heavyweight champion, Miocic has four title defenses to his name, a UFC record. He also holds nine fight-night bonuses, the most in UFC’s heavyweight division history. With a 20-4 record including 15 KOs, Miocic is a worthy opponent for Jones and not to be taken lightly.

Under his Instagram post, one fan was keen to remind everyone of Miocic’s stature and wrote, “Everyone forgot who you are … time to remind them who’s the heavyweight goat 🐐 👏🔥”

The post by Miocic was also a timely reminder to those questioning his fitness ahead of the clash. After interim champion Aspinall raised doubt over his status and rumors around an injury grew, Mioco took to his X on August 23 to post a GIF on former US POTUS Donald Trump with the words “FAKE NEWS!” flashing on the screen.

Fans in his Instagram comment section were sending a warning to Jon Jones, “Jon ain’t ready 🐐” and “Stipe comes to take some heads.”

In August, Dana White mentioned that the Jon Jones fight could be the last of Miocic’s career and we could see the UFC fighter retire after that, regardless of the outcome. White said, “Stipe 100 percent is going to retire after this fight.” At 42-years-old and part of a gruesome sport like MMA, time might be catching up with him. Hence, he will be keen to bow out with a big win to his name that will see him become a three-time heavyweight champion

A fan agreed with his sentiment and wrote, “You can outsmart him, you will win. And new 🔥” However, some fans were still worried about him facing the MMA GOAT. Jones is yet to be outright beaten in the octagon and has a 27-1 record with the only defeat on his record being a disqualification for using illegal 12-to-6 elbows against Mark Hamill in 2009.

A fan claimed that Miocic truly is a great fighter but not good enough to grab a win, “Stipe is good but we all know what’s gonna happen 💔🥲”

While fans of Bones would like him to hang his gloves with his head held up high with a win, fans of Miocic would want him to dethrone the greatest MMA fighter of all time. What do you think? Will Miocic be able to dethrone Bones? Let us know in the comments.