‘The spinning back kick heard around the world’ – was the start of the finishing sequence for Jon Jones beating Stipe Miocic at UFC 309.  After their fight, Jones stated that it’s hard to gauge Miocic’s reaction to punches, given the Croatian-American’s stoic nature. However, the kick that Jones threw at Miocic had the former heavyweight champion visibly wince before dropping to knees to eat a thundering left hook that floored him. For a heavyweight legend to succumb to a shot like that, speaks volumes to the kicking power of Jones. And guess whom Jones has drawn his inspiration from for landing that vicious blow?

It’s none other than Bruce Lee, the legendary martial artist. “Bruce Lee says he doesn’t fear the man that knows 10,000 kicks, but the man who has worked one kick 10,000 times. I worked it and it was a devastating shot,” Jones said after his win. We hope you understand the volume of work Jones has put into mastering it. Indeed! Here is how.

“About six months ago, we started training the spinning back-kick. My taekwondo coach would come over to my house, we trained that same kick three hours a week for several months,” Jones revealed. No wonder, it was one and for all. But it also raises concern about the man who had to take it. Reacting to the finish, sports medicine expert, Dr Brian Sutterer expressed worry that the 42-year-old former champ may have contracted some serious injuries because of the kick.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, the doctor broke down the potential injuries the kick may have caused based upon the fight footage. – “We can see the initial impact is going to be absorbed by Miocic’s primarily latissimus dorsi – that’s going to be his lat muscle. Unfortunately it doesn’t absorb that much of the blow and we see this significant amount of deterioration go into the ribs and that upper left thoracic region,” he said, highlighting the main point of impact being Miocic’s lat muscles and ribs.

The point that may worry longtime Miocic fans, is the doctor suspected that there may potentially be “some injury to the internal organs” based on the force of impact and the deformity to his lat. While he felt that Stipe Miocic‘s liver was safe, he feared his kidney may have been damaged, or his spleen may have been lacerated. The latter, of course, could be serious. How serious?

According to the doctor, if someone has a bad spleen laceration, sometimes the bleeding can not be stopped. The only way to stop bleeding that can potentially be fatal is to actually remove the spleen (splenectomy). But the one thing the doctor seemed sure of was that Miocic had broken at least one of his ribs. “I would be shocked if Miocic does not have a rib fracture,” Dr Sutterer added. He also gave an idea about what symptoms need to be looked out for to understand things are going wrong.

“Going forward, the big sign they [the medics] are going to watch for is just progression of abdominal pain. You can also potentially see some bruising ecchymosis underneath the skin as a sign of that intra-abdominal bleeding from something like a spleen laceration or kidney laceration,” the doctor noted. However, after the fight, Miocic had only praise to offer to his opponent.

“He’s really, really good. He’s really durable. I was hitting him with some pretty decent shots but he kept coming forward. It was like fighting against the Terminator. Very, very discouraging to hit somebody that’s not reacting to it. But that body shot, no matter how tough you are, the liver’s the liver,” Miocic said. While it took till the third round to finish the fight, Jon would have finished the fight much earlier.

A fierce ground technician, Jones scored with an early trip takedown that put Miocic on the canvas as he started to unload with some powerful elbows. On several occasions, Jones was just unloading with shots, as Miocic did his best to weave from the bottom to avoid damage. Jones was attacking relentlessly from the top, but Miocic moved just enough to avoid a potential finish.

On the restart, Miocic looked more deliberate with his strikes, which allowed Jones to escape anything heavy coming from the former. Jones connected with a couple of stiff body kicks and a slick jab. As Miocic started to pursue, Jones went hard to the body with more kicks and then delivered a pair of straight punches that left the former heavyweight champion wincing in pain. Jones rushed forward, but Miocic countered with enough power to back him off momentarily.

But Miocic just couldn’t find an opening for his punches and he was struggling to battle the speed and accuracy of Jones. Since Miocic still could have been dangerous with his punching power, Jones was playing with a strategy of picking his spots and waiting for the right opening for the finish.

That finally came late in the third round as Jones backed Miocic up against the cage and landed the spinning back kick with his heel digging deep into the Miocic’s body. Miocic reacted immediately as he fell to the floor with Jones following him there for a few more shots. After coming back on his feet, Miocic immediately announced the obvious.

“I knew he was going to be tough. He’s one of the best of all time. He caught me in the ribs. I expected everything and I just didn’t do what I was supposed to do. Hats off to that man. I’m done. I’m hanging them up. I’m retiring,” Miocic said to Joe Rogan in the post-fight octagon interview. But he did so with a legacy of his own.

Stipe Miocic hangs up his gloves, but What Jon Jones is up to?

Considered the heavyweight GOAT by many (including UFC CEO Dana White), Miocic holds the record for the most heavyweight title defenses at four. Having won the heavyweight title twice, he’s also the only man to have three consecutive title defenses at heavyweight.

In his time at the UFC, he defeated the likes of Daniel Cormier (twice out of their three fights) and Francis Ngannou – considered by many as one of the scariest fighters to ever compete in the UFC. In fact, the firefighter was the first to ever beat ‘The Predator’ in the UFC. The former champ, however, suffered a devastating knockout loss in his rematch with Ngannou three years ago.

Clearly at the end of his rope at 42-years-old, many were expecting him to retire after UFC 309. And that is exactly what happened. The UFC legend is a firefighter, and a paramedic along with being a father of two girls, and plans to spend much more time with them. His legacy is one that will be hard to beat. In honor of his incredible legacy, we wish ‘the greatest heavyweight of all time’ a speedy recovery and an incredible life post-retirement. Meanwhile, what is cooking on Jon Jones’ end?

After the fight, Jones celebrated by dancing in the center of the octagon, before greeting Trump, handing the president-elect his title. “Professing my love for Jesus in front of everyone tonight, being an American champion, doing that in front of my president [former and the next US president Donald Trump]. If Stipe was my last fight, that was the way to do it,” Jones said. Did we hear that right? Is he talking about continuing further? A big yes and a much-speculated showdown against interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall, probably!

“As far as my future in the octagon, I decided that maybe I will not retire. I have some conversations to have with Dana [White] and Hunter [Campbell] and we have some negotiating to do and everything goes right, maybe we’ll give you guys what you want to see,” Jones said after finishing the fight. Jones has long been criticized for avoiding the Tom Aspinall fight. Let’s wait to see if he finally puts that to rest.