With just days left for his title fight against the undisputed heavyweight champion Jon Jones, Stipe Miocic’s power game has been questioned by MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko.
Jones is the overwhelming favorite to win at UFC 309. And Miocic will be hoping to put him to sleep rather than let the fight go the distance. Calling Miocic’s technique interesting, Emelianenko said that while the 42-year-old fireman has speed, he lacked the power to KO Jones.
“He’s light on his feet but he doesn’t have enough power. It was evident in his fight against Francis Ngannou.”
Miocic won the first duel with Ngannou at UFC 220 by an unanimous decision. Taking the fight into the fifth round is not how Miocic usually operate.
In the 20 fights the American has won in his career, 15 have come via knockouts. So Jones better not make the mistake of taking Miocic’s perceived lack of strength as a sign that he will not go for the kill.
On the contrary, Jones is unlikely to KO Stipe. It’s simply not his style. Despite the size, Jones has never been a big hitter. He is innovative, and chips away at his opponents till they make a mistake.
Jones loves dragging the fights to the final round where he can keep his cardio intensity up while his opponents fade. It’s also probably why he doesn’t want to face Tom Aspinall despite, the interim heavyweight champion.
Why doesn’t Jones want the Aspinall fight?
Well this question will arise soon, if not already: Why is Jones not fighting the interim champion?
Aspinall held the division and kept it moving by winning the heavyweight title but defending it while Jones recovered. Given the credentials and reputation, a fight between them ticks all right boxes. Except that the man Dana White claims is the pound-for-pound #1, is dismissive of the idea of fighting the Brit.
It probably has something to do with the record Aspinall has amassed. In his career of 18 professional fights, Tom has only spend a cumulative time of 41 minutes in the octagon. The longest the 31-year-old taken to finish an opponent was 3 minutes, 45 seconds. And that was against Alexander Volkov, a scary fighter in his own right.
So, what does Jones, an unmovable object who likes taking fights to rounds 4 and 5 do, when he has to face an unstoppable force who finishes them in under 2 minutes on average?
Does he move forward? Or duck? Well, Jones seems to be evading at the moment.
