Stipe Miocic deserved better sendoff from UFC after incredible MMA career

The duality of mixed martial arts was on full display at the conclusion of UFC 309.

On one side, you had Jon Jones relishing in a dominant championship victory. He created a viral moment by dancing, celebrating with and being celebrated by the president-elect in the most famous arena in combat sports history. On the other side, there was Stipe Miocic. Slumped over in the corner of the cage, battered and dejected.

Well past his fighting prime at age 42, hadn’t competed in 3.5 years and hadn’t won in more than four, Miocic had just been beaten up by a younger man who had been fabricating animosity in an attempt to soil Miocic’s reputation and sell the fight all week — maybe Jones made it “personal” as a contrived way to get himself into fight mode?

The UFC doesn’t always interview both fighters following an outcome, but they often do if the losing fighter is a prominent figure. Michael Chandler was given the chance to make a couple of callouts after losing the co-main event to Charles Oliveira in the fight immediately preceding Jones vs. Miocic.

This year, we saw a fighter with a sub-.500 UFC record who had never competed for, let alone won a UFC title, receive a prearranged sendoff package after a loss to celebrate their career.

Perhaps it wouldn’t’ve been fitting given the moment and Miocic’s personality — timing could’ve been an issue, too, given how the card ended — but the respected former champion received no such treatment.

Joe Rogan simply asked the UFC record holder for most heavyweight title defences if he would fight again and then thanked him when Miocic made it official that the UFC 309 main event was, in fact, his final fight.

It only required 10 words and a few seconds.

“I’m done. I’m hanging ‘em up. I’m retiring. Thank God.”

It was a fitting farewell in some respects, given how little Miocic actually said during his career, yet an altogether dissatisfying one at the same time.

Surely, Miocic will one day be enshrined in the UFC Hall of Fame, which will make up for the unfortunate end to his fighting career.

That’s to say, it doesn’t seem like the organization will wipe him from the annals of history the way they sometimes appear to do with Francis Ngannou’s achievements in the division.

Jones preferred to face Miocic rather than interim champion Tom Aspinall, who, from a meritocracy standpoint, is the only logical next option for Jones and would’ve been a better option than Miocic for Jones’s return from a year-and-a-half layoff.

“He’s had an incredible career, and (the loss to Jones) doesn’t diminish who he was at heavyweight and what he’s accomplished here,” Dana White said of Miocic at his post-event press conference. “When you think about Stipe, he’s made a lot of money. He’s been a firefighter. He’ll retire with his pension and all the things. Stipe’s going to have a great life.”

Hopefully, Miocic was well compensated for UFC 309 because, for every great champion like Georges St-Pierre and Khabib Nurmagomedov who go out on top and on their own terms, there are multitudes more like Miocic whose careers conclude unsatisfactorily.

Of Miocic’s five losses in 25 pro bouts, four came to UFC champions, three of whom Miocic also beat at one point. His final two losses were the TKO to Jones and a vicious knockout from Ngannou in 2021.

Miocic’s first pro loss, and the only one against a fighter that never reached the top of the mountain (although he could probably see it from his vantage point), was seven-footer Stefan Struve in 2012.

Struve was in New York during UFC 309 fight week, and the retired UFC heavyweight was actually up with Jones at one point. Perhaps the 36-year-old from the Netherlands gave the former longtime light-heavyweight champion some tips on how to land effective punches on Miocic.

Jones, 37, mostly had his way with his opponent and hurt Miocic a few times with his hands throughout the fight before landing his fight-ending spinning kick to the body.

In an alternate reality where Miocic faced Jones while still an active competitor, maybe he would’ve given a better account of himself. In his prime, Miocic was a dogged competitor with well-rounded skill, and his six-fight winning streak that lasted three years is still among the greatest streaks in heavyweight MMA history.

Miocic earned his first title shot by stopping Mark Hunt and Andrei Arlovsk. He first won the title in 2016 when he knocked out Fabricio Werdum in Brazil, celebrating by hopping the cage and repeating, “I’m a world champ!” as he embraced his team. A fantastic title change moment.

The Euclid, Ohio native’s title defence over Alistair Overeem was a highlight knockout in his home state. His TKO win over Junior dos Santos avenged a previous decision loss, and he was the first fighter to beat Ngannou in the UFC before losing that rematch.

He lost his title to Daniel Cormier in 2018 before winning it back in 2019 and cementing that rivalry with a trilogy bout victory in 2020. Miocic could’ve retired then and gone down the path of GSP and Khabib, but instead, we find ourselves in a different spot today.

While it might be difficult for his fan base and those who respect what he accomplished and how he conducted himself during his career, the silver lining is that Miocic is built to handle situations and adversity far more serious than those involving ego or pride.

In all likelihood, a down-to-earth, blue-collar guy like Miocic will, in a few weeks, be making self-deprecating jokes in the firehouse while being more concerned with what’s on the menu than the state of his MMA legacy.

Here's to a great career, Stipe.