Jon Jones did his job Saturday night by completely overpowering Stipe Miocic and knocking him out with a brutal spinning back kick to the body in the third round of the UFC 309 main event. But did Jones deserve so much credit considering Miocic was coming off nearly four years of inactivity and that, at 42, he might not be the same fighter who twice conquered the UFC heavyweight division?

That’s the argument UFC legend Matt Brown made when recalling the fight on his Instagram. While Jones put in an excellent performance, he wasn’t exactly facing the Miocic, who eliminated opponents like Francis Ngannou and Daniel Cormier in the past. ‘The Immortal’ said, “As bad as he looked athletically, and he looked his age, also. I’d say he looked past his age, to be honest. Straight legs, no hate on Stipe. It just looked like he doesn’t have it at this, right? At this point. And why should he? He came into challenge himself at the highest level with the greatest ever and didn’t pass the challenge.”

He further added, “But to me… this might be a little controversial, but to me, it almost takes away a little bit from Jon Jones. I mean, he beat him almost flawlessly. I gave Stipe round two, but it wasn’t like some demolition or anything. It was almost flawless for Jon Jones, but I wasn’t amazed by Jon Jones beating that version of Stipe.” According to Brown, it looked like Stipe didn’t really want to be there. Maybe he was there just for the money.

Even if he had any will to fight, it was probably taken away after ‘Bones’ threw the first punch. As per the UFC veteran, ‘Stone Cold’ just wasn’t present in the moment. So as much as he’d want to give credit to Jon Jones for the fight, seeing Miocic in the fight definitely made him believe otherwise. “He didn’t have that fire under his a**. He was just like, ‘If I beat you, I beat you; if I don’t, I don’t.’ That’s the way it felt to me just emotionally.”

It really is a take that does take away a lot of credit from Jon Jones. It will also fuel further arguments by fans of Tom Aspinall who believe that ‘Bones’ is now picking easy fights to avoid facing the interim UFC heavyweight champion. As a result, it didn’t take much time for the fans of Jon Jones to hit back at Matt Brown for his take on the fight.

Matt Brown comes under heavy fire from Jon Jones fans

As soon as Brown uploaded the video on his social media, Jon Jones’ fans rallied in support of their favorite fighter. In the video, Brown claimed that, according to him, Stipe Miocic won the second round. However, this was a take that many disagreed with. According to them, it was clear as day that Jones completely dominated the bout. As a result, they called out ‘The Immortal’ for his takes with comments like, “As soon as he said he thought stipe won the second. I immediately knew everything else he had to say was BS💀,” “In what world did Stipe win round 2 lol,” and “Stipe did not win round 2 lol, L take.”

Some of these fans were so offended by what Matt Brown had to share that they revealed that they’d start unfollowing him for his unpopular opinions. Like in the past, he blamed UFC fighters who got paid less during the fighter pay issue. With another controversial take, fans were quick to call the veteran out. So they wrote comments like, “Every Matt Brown weekly post makes me wana unfollow more n more,” and “Matt brown post/opinion = unfollow.”

However, not all fans were disagreeing with what Matt Brown shared. While Miocic found a way to stay in the ring following an unbalanced first round in which he ended up on his back with Jones throwing jabs at him from above, the Ohio native simply never managed to put together any offense during the fight. By all accounts, Miocic seemed much slower than Jones all along, and his reaction time seemed simply poor compared to the heavyweight of the past. Many in the comments revealed that they too had a similar take.

Sharing their thoughts, they wrote comments such as, “He has a point. Stipe didn’t look like he wanted to be there. I think Stipe has been done with MMA for years now,” and “Stipe looked like he was trying to get one last check before he heads out. Not saying he didn’t train hard, but realistically, I think he knew it was a long shot to win.”

Well, it looks like the fight still remains a hot topic of conversation. So what is your take on it? Do you agree with Matt Brown? Let us know in the comments.