UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones and former champ Stipe Miocic are little more than a week away from squaring off, which means their training camps are starting to wind down.

Jones puts his title on the line against Miocic in the UFC 309 main event on Nov. 16 at Madison Square Garden in New York (ESPN+ pay-per-view). The matchup is being hyped as an important legacy fight for both men, with Jones, who spent the vast majority of his career ruling the light heavyweight division, widely considered the greatest fighter of all time and Miocic, who holds the UFC record for consecutive heavyweight title defenses (3), widely regarded as the promotion’s greatest heavyweight of all time.

The pause, however, is that neither Jones nor Miocic has been very active in recent years.

Starting with 37-year-old Jones, he had just one fight in the past four-and-a-half years, and that was 20 months ago when he submitted Ciryl Gane in his heavyweight debut for vacant title at UFC 285. Jones also is coming off a torn pectoral tendon one year ago and has had multiple surgeries since then.

For Miocic, the layoff has been even longer. Now 42, Miocic hasn’t competed since being knocked out in a rematch with Francis Ngannou to lose the title on March 27, 2021 at UFC 260.

Suffice to say, it’ll be interesting to see how Jones and Miocic look when they step inside the octagon for a scheduled five-round fight. In the buildup to UFC 309, both men have offered glimpses into the late stages of their training on social media.

You can watch their videos below:     

Nov. 5: Jones cracks mitts, shows off spinning back kick

Nov. 6: Jones hits bag, works ropes, does cardio in snow

Nov. 6: Miocic works intense gym cardio

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 309.

We have seen some amazing Premier League comebacks down the years but few can match the way Chris claimed victory in last week’s predictions.

He was trailing his guest, The Piano winner Brad Kella, by 80-20 after eight of the 10 games in week 10, and was also 50 points behind you lot, before giving himself hope with an exact score in Manchester United’s draw with Chelsea on Sunday.

After 90 minutes of Monday’s final game, Kella’s prediction of a 1-0 Brentford win looked set to give him overall victory, before Fulham’s 92nd minute equaliser saw the BBC Sport readers, who had gone for a 1-1 draw, move in front as things stood.

Chris would have finished third with either of those results but instead snatched a remarkable last-gasp win, thanks to Harry Wilson’s 97th-minute winner for the Cottagers, which gave him another exact score and 40 more points.

That meant he ended up with four correct results, including those two exact scores, and a total of 100 points.

Kella got five correct results, but with only one exact score, leaving him on 80 points, and you lot got four correct results with one exact score, to end up on 70 points.

“I have sent a box of wine around to Harry Wilson’s house to say thanks,” Chris said. “Or at least I would do if I knew where he lived.”

Dana White might just be practicing the art of positive affirmation because he’s certain no matter who walks out with the heavyweight title at UFC 309, the winner will move on to face interim champion Tom Aspinall next.

The showdown between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic has been anticipated for over a year after they were booked to meet in November 2023 until a torn pectoral muscle suffered by Jones delayed the fight. In Jones’ absence, Aspinall become interim champion but White and the UFC were adamant about Jones still facing Miocic in a battle between two all-time greats.

There has been plenty of talk of Jones, Miocic or both of them possibly retiring after their fight concludes on Nov. 16, but White continues to believe that the winner won’t walk away without giving Aspinall his chance to unify the titles.

“I truly believe that whoever wins this fight, just competitively the way that these guys are wired and the reason that they’re both massive legends in the sport, they’re not going to just ride off into the sunset without settling the dispute with Tom Aspinall,” White told TNT Sports.

Aspinall has repeatedly called out Jones, who claimed a vacant heavyweight title with a quick submission of Ciryl Gane back in March 2023. In response, Jones largely scoffed at Aspinall’s demands while staying steadfast that he’s always wanted to face Miocic, who holds the record for most successful title defenses (4) at heavyweight in UFC history.

While Miocic won’t make any commitment about his future until after he fights at UFC 309, Jones has publicly hinted at his own retirement numerous times. Despite that, White believes that Jones and Miocic respect the sport enough to give Aspinall his opportunity to become an undisputed champion before hanging up the gloves.

“When you think about Jon Jones becoming the youngest champion in [UFC] history and all the things that Stipe accomplished, they were given opportunities when they were young,” White said. “I think that they will reciprocate.”

Aspinall plans on sitting cageside for the event and he’s also weighing in as the backup, although it remains to be seen if Jones or Miocic would actually agree to face him on short notice if disaster struck during fight week.

For his part, White knows that either fighter eventually taking on Aspinall would do huge business for the UFC and he’s not giving up hope on making it happen.

“People will lose their f*cking minds if either one of those fights happen,” White said. “Stipe or Jon Jones [against Tom Aspinall].”

For flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja, the division could use a new face like Kai Asakura.

Former RIZIN champion Asakura (21-4 MMA, 0-0 UFC) challenges Pantoja (28-5 MMA, 12-3 UFC) for the flyweight title at UFC 310 on Dec. 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPN2, ESPN+).

The likes of top contender Kai Kara-France took issue with a newcomer getting a title shot, but having cleared out the majority of the division, Pantoja thinks it’s the right fight.

“I think it’s all about time,” Pantoja told MMA Junkie. “In that time right now, I think it makes sense.”

Pantoja is happy to see the flyweight division being spotlighted with numerous headliners – most recently with Brandon Moreno defeating Amir Albazi in this past Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 246 main event.

Brandon Royval is also recently coming off a main event win, where he bounced Tatsuro Taira out of the ranks of the unbeaten at UFC Fight Night 244 in October. But with Pantoja having already beaten both Moreno and Royval twice, he likes the challenge of studying a new opponent.

“You bring Kai Asakura, the crossover – that’s what every hater of the UFC is talking about: ‘UFC needs to make a crossover,’ and when the UFC did that, the haters come back and say Asakura doesn’t deserve to fight for the belt,” Pantoja said. “But especially in my division – I love Royval too, that’s a beautiful fight he did with Taira, a contender, super fresh guy, Japanese, beautiful fight. I loved watching the grappling, the fight style. But of course, Royval lost to me twice.

“I think it makes sense. This time, nobody can say nothing. And it’s good for the whole division, too, because after my fight with Asakura, everybody is going to get the opportunity to fight with this guy, too. He’s good for the whole division. When I finished my fight with (Stephen) Erceg, and I was thinking who’s going to be my next opponent, when I looked at the top five in the UFC, I know the game plan to fight all these guys. Then you bring someone new, that’s good for me. I like that challenge.”

Kamaru Usman and Shavkat Rakhmonov have shared a gym, but that doesn’t mean they can’t share the octagon on fight night.

UFC 310 is still in flux with welterweight champion Belal Muhammad having withdrawn from the scheduled main event after suffering a foot infection. Muhammad was to defend his title against Rakhmonov and it is not yet known if their fight will be rescheduled or if a new opponent will be found for Rakhmonov to stay on the Dec. 7 card.

Should the matchmakers need an elite name to step into Muhammad’s spot, Usman is ready for the call, even if it means squaring off with a fighter he’s often seen in the same training space.

“First of all, let me clarify something: We’re not teammates,” Usman said on his Pound-4-Pound podcast. “He comes in and trains in my gym where I was for most of my career until the last four or five years, which I’m still in that gym. That’s [Henry Hooft’s] gym, Kill Cliff now is the name, but he’s not my teammate per se.

“But if the UFC’s going to call who they think is going to be legit tough enough and man enough to step in there, is crazy enough to step in there on short notice and go out there and possibly shock the world, definitely the UFC know who to call when that situation happens. And if they do give me a call, I’m going to answer the call, we’ll get a couple of things straight and if we’ve got to do it, we’ve got to do it. I don’t shy away from any of that. I’ve done it on six days’ notice. I’ve done it on eight days’ notice and hey, this is only a couple of weeks’ notice.”

Usman is currently on a three-fight skid and has been patient with searching out his next opponent. Most recently, he lost a majority decision to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294 in a middleweight bout that he accepted on short notice. Prior to that, he lost back-to-back title fights against rival Leon Edwards and is now winless since November 2021.

There has been no love lost between Usman and Muhammad and while that’s a matchup he’s also targeted, he hopes Muhammad is given proper time to recover and suffers no longterm negative effects from his toe infection.

“That’s my personal belief, I do sometimes think he does act like a dork, but Belal, he’s a man,” Usman said. “He’s a man at the same time. He’s a competitor, he’s a fighter, and I would never want to see that happen to anyone. I’ve dealt with series of series of injuries and it’s never fun, especially when this is our livelihood. This is how he feeds his family, so I would never, ever want something like that to happen. So hope for a speedy recovery for Mr. Belal Muhammad.”