Bones: I’m worried about vet Miocic

Jon ‘Bones’ Jones makes his second heavyweight fight soon in what looks like an undemanding night’s work. Yet he insists he is not looking past Stipe Miocic.

Jones defends his UFC heavyweight title against Miocic in the main event of UFC 295 at Madison Square Garden, New York, on Nov. 11. At 41 and coming off a 32-month layoff, analysts aren’t giving Miocic much of a chance, but Jones disagrees, saying that he’s still fixated on the fight and the dangers Miocic poses as UFC 295 draws closer.

“I feel like when you get to a place when you don’t feel anything is probably when it’s time to hang it up and try something different,” Jones said. “At this point, I still get really nervous, man. I have nightmares about my opponents. But the goal is to just conquer that.”

Though he is widely recognised as the most accomplished heavyweight in UFC history, Miocic has not fought since his knockout loss to Francis Ngannou in their rematch at UFC 260. But despite that, and the crop of surging contenders in the heavyweight division, Jones insists that fighting Miocic is viable.

“Stipe has balls. He has courage,” unbeaten Jones, 36, said. “He’s not the youngest fighter, but that is a man. That is a man. I’m not the youngest either. I understand where Stipe is at, just being looked past by a lot of people, and I respect him even more for training his ass off. I know that in his camp, he expects to win, so I respect him.”