Is Jon Jones really ducking Tom Aspinall by fighting Stipe Miocic? This has been a growing narrative among the members of the UFC community, but guess what? Miocic seems unbothered about his critics, who believe that the undisputed champion should fight the interim champion at this point in time. In fact, fighting ‘Bones’ was always on the former 2-time champion’s bucket list.

Besides the financial prospects of fighting Jon Jones, the Ohio native has a choice to become the first and perhaps the last fighter to beat the unbeatable ‘Bones’, given that the 27-1 legend has hinted at potentially hanging up his gloves after UFC 309. The UFC’s resident firefighter wants to beat the guy because Jones’ only loss came via a disqualification, which, after the recent 12-6 elbow becoming a legal move, could be overturned to a no-contest. Amidst this, Miocic would go all in to achieve certain immortality by slaying the consensus MMA GOAT.

“I just wanted to fight Jon. I mean, it’s always what I wanted to do. Don’t get me wrong, Aspinall, he’s a great fighter, but I just want to fight Jon Jones… I just wanna fight the best and so does he [Jones] so let’s have some fun,” Stipe Miocic told ‘MMA Fighting’. “If it was my choice, it was a fight I wanted. UFC gave it to me [but] they didn’t have to… I think people wanna see that [fight].”

During the interview, the former champion responded to those criticisms pretty nonchalantly and only seemed to have been impressed with Tom Aspinall‘s rise to becoming a UFC champion. This is despite the interim champion taking a dig at Miocic about his age a few months ago as he said, “This guy needs to be Joe Biden’d.” However, do you think Stipe Miocic will be able to prove his critics wrong? We will get that answer soon, but by the way, Miocic revealed how important this fight is to him and would be one of the biggest accolades to cap off his fighting career.

Stipe Miocic is confident about beating Jon Jones

The former two-time champion has already proved how tough he is since he’s done something that Jon Jones hasn’t had the opportunity to do – fight and beat Francis Ngannou. Stipe Miocic is razor-focused on this upcoming bout against ‘Bones’ because, according to him, he cannot cap off his UFC run any better than beating the heavyweight champion and earning the title for a record third time.

“When I do beat him, it’s going to be great… 100 percent [a great end to his career],” Miocic added. If we look at what the odds are, Jon Jones is looking like the heavy favorite to get the better of the former 2-time champion, and understandably. But the former light heavyweight champion still didn’t showcase enough when he defeated Ciryl Gane in under a couple of minutes, making it interesting for fans as they anticipate how things will go down on November 16.

What is your take on Stipe Miocic’s response to his critics? Drop your comments below.