It’s fair to say that most people saw Stipe Miocic losing to Jon Jones at UFC 309. How he would lose was a matter of speculation among fans until the thundering spinning back-kick thrown by Jones in the third round of their fight. Fans were left teary-eyed as they saw their beloved former champion walk away from the fight game after his painful loss to Jon Jones. However, the same fans were not surprised at the outcome as Jones was the heavy favorite going into the fight. Among those who predicted Miocic’s loss was former UFC fighter and podcaster Brendan Schaub. Furthermore, ‘Big Brown’ speculated that Miocic wasn’t in the mindset of fighting before walking into the Octagon.

“I don’t think Stipe really wanted to do this – I don’t think he did. I think he’s been done for a long time and he knows his body is a fraction of what it used to be. He can’t really put his best foot forward. He’s just lucky to move his foot at all at this point.”, said Schaub. Despite predicting Stipe Miocic’s loss, Brendan Schaub expected the former heavyweight champion to reflect on his journey and close out his fighting career with a monologue. Instead, the ever-stoic Miocic quickly recapped his fight and ended with – “I’m done, I’m hanging ’em up. I’m not returning, thank God!”.

“They give him the mic [in his post-fight speech]. There’s no special thing, there’s nothing there, he goes, ‘I’m done, thank God! Get me the f**k out of here, thank God this bulls**t’s over. I don’t want to be here in the first place, give me my godd*mned cheque. There’s no after-party, there’s nothing to celebrate.  I want to go back, fight fires, raise my kids’. The key moment for me in that fight, in a nutshell [was], ‘I’m done, thank God’.”, said Schaub reflecting on the former champion’s closing words at UFC 309.

Despite his last two fights ending devastatingly, Stipe Miocic will always be regarded as one of the greatest heavyweights to do it, if not the greatest. The Croatian-American firefighter and paramedic added a long list of esteemed names in the heavyweight division to his resume. Despite his job as a firefighter, Miocic managed to win the heavyweight title twice and was the first man to have three consecutive title defenses at heavyweight. Fans will never forget his three wars with Daniel Cormier, his knockouts of Fabricio Werdum and Alistair Overeem, and the fact that he put the brakes on Francis Ngannou’s hype when they first met in 2018.

To Brendan Schaub’s credit, it does seem like Stipe Miocic was done with fighting, and wanted to return to his life as a full-time firefighter. After all, Miocic has butted heads with the UFC head honcho several times, and going by Dana White’s track record, it seems like he may have not made the journey any easier for the former heavyweight champion.

Brendan Schaub shares more than one thing in common with Stipe Miocic

It’s interesting to note Schaub’s tone when speaking of how Stipe Miocic left the sport. One could perhaps sense a hint of exasperation in his voice as if the former TUF alum knew exactly what Miocic was going through. That might partly be true since Brendan Schaub himself left the sport with two straight losses, one of them being a devastating KO loss to Travis Brown. The other thing that Schaub and Miocic have in common is their collective disdain for UFC head honcho Dana White.

At the heart of both conflicts was fighter pay. Schaub and White first locked horns in 2015, when the then-newly retired UFC heavyweight raised an issue with UFC’s Reebok deal in 2014. With the Reebok deal, the UFC essentially banned fighters from showcasing their sponsors on their fighter shorts. The Reebok deal was one way of locking fighters’ pay within their contracts. Complaining about the move, Schaub took to Twitter (now X) to post the following – “I’ve made six figures in sponsorship in each of my last 6 fights”. White later reacted to Schaub’s post with, “I’m sure this guy is making $100,000 a fight”. Since then, the two have shared a tumultuous relationship, and have even gone back on forth on multiple occasions.

On the other hand, Stipe Miocic’s gripe with Dana White began when the former champion felt undervalued in his title fight against Alistair Overeem at UFC 203. As defending champion, Miocic was paid $600,000 while his then-more experienced Dutch opponent received $800,000 for the bout. Miocic felt betrayed and claimed that the UFC ‘took his kindness for weakness’. Dana White, in his defense, complained that Stipe Miocic ‘doesn’t market himself well enough’. A visibly irked Stipe Miocic refused to let Dana White wrap the belt around him when he knocked out Junior dos Santos in the first round in his next appearance as champion at UFC 211.

Is Stipe Miocic justified in his anger towards the UFC? What do you think of his legacy? Do you think Miocic was mentally unwilling to fight at UFC 309? Sound off in the comments below.