The UFC returns to New York on Saturday to settle a debate.

At 309, the presumed greatest fighter of all time takes on the presumed greatest heavyweight in UFC history. Both return after lengthy layoffs, but there are key storylines at stake this week, too.

The UFC has released the UFC 309 cold open video. The card features a heavyweight title fight between champion Jon Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) and former champ Stipe Miocic (20-4 MMA, 14-4 UFC).

The video is narrated by actor and regular UFC voice-over narrator Ron Perlman and has a backdrop soundtrack of “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Metallica from the 1986 album “Ride the Lightning.”

The cold open also looks at the co-main event lightweight fight between former champion Charles Oliveira (34-10 MMA, 22-10 UFC) and Michael Chandler (23-8 MMA, 2-3 UFC).

Check out the UFC 309 cold open video above.

UFC 309 (pay-per-view, ESPNews/Hulu/FX, ESPN+) takes place Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York.

MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)

• Champ Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic – for heavyweight title
• Michael Chandler vs. Charles Oliveira
• Paul Craig vs. Bo Nickal
• Viviane Araujo vs. Karine Silva
• James Llontop vs. Mauricio Ruffy

PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPNews/FX/Hulu, 8 p.m. ET)

• Jonathan Martinez vs. Marcus McGhee
• Eryk Anders vs. Chris Weidman
• Damon Jackson vs. Jim Miller
• David Onama vs. Roberto Romero

PRELIMINARY CARD (Hulu/ESPN+, 6 p.m. ET)

• Jhonata Diniz vs. Marcin Tybura
• Ramiz Brahimaj vs. Mickey Gall
• Bassil Hafez vs. Oban Elliott
• Veronica Hardy vs. Eduarda Moura

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

Video Details

Tech3 GasGas rider Pedro Acosta conceded that he gave away potential victories in his rookie MotoGP campaign by “f***cking up everything”.

Although Acosta managed to live up to the hype upon his graduation to the premier class this year, his season on the KTM RC16 has also been plagued by a series of mistakes and crashes from leading positions.

Most notably, the Spanish rider qualified on pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi, only to crash out of both the sprint and the main race while in contention for victory.

Recapping his first year in MotoGP ahead of this weekend’s season finale in Barcelona, Acosta said that victories were an achievable target for him in 2024, but his unforced errors meant that he wasn’t able to improve on the second-place finishes he achieved in Austin and Mandalika.

“We were fighting for many wins in the season, the problem then [was] I f**k up everything,” he said.

“At the end, the target to fight for wins was there. The possibility was realistic, it was not something of dreaming. It’s true that it’s hard to see how many opportunities I put in the bin, but it’s part of the job also.

“With all the mistakes I do over the season it’s unbelievable I’m still P5 [in the championship. It’s important enough for sure but it’s more important to finish the year in a good mood, with good results.”

Pedro Acosta, Tech3 GASGAS Factory Racing

Photo by: Rob Gray / Polarity Photo

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Despite admitting to making several mistakes over the year, Acosta is still the highest-placed non-Ducati rider in the championship in fifth place, having outscored even KTM stablemate Brad Binder on the factory-entered bike.

The 2023 Moto2 champion burst into the scene at the start of the year, scoring a podium in only his second grand prix appearance at Portimao before finishing second at the next round in Austin.

Although his results then began to tail off, he was able to bounce back after the summer break, adding three more rostrum finishes to his tally.

Acosta gave himself a 6/10 rating ahead of the Barcelona finale, having previously thought his performances at the mid-point of the year were only good enough for a score of 4.5.

Asked to grade his first year in MotoGP, he said: “Six [out of 10]. Six maybe because putting everything together, all the mistakes I made, all the points I put in the bin, all the stupid crashes that I was having, all the things I needed to try [six is fair].

“In the last couple of races, I was trying things and then in the race I was racing with other things, and I was not really having time to work on a weekend.

“I will put a 6 because I said in the beginning we will go like this [pointing upwards] and then we drop. And from my point of view maybe it was not like this in the last couple of races but not bad.”

Paul seems to enjoy ruffling feathers, prioritising clicks over what people think of him.

“My brand has become the comments section, which is full of hate, accusations, lies. It has become all of these things but they don’t see the underlying genius in it all, which is that I’m just an entertainer having a blast,” he says.

But dig a little further and you will find a more complex individual.

Paul says he extracted “super powers” from trauma suffered by a tough upbringing. His father, Greg, denies ever hitting his sons.

“The super power is the resilience, the hard work, the ambition and all of that stuff,” he explains.

“When your parents are hard on you it can create a lack of self love and insecurities. You just have to squash the bad parts and then keep the good parts of trauma.”

When Paul says “it’s all a game and I’m playing the game better”, you get the feeling he is not just referring to boxing.

But controversy follows him just as closely as his vast fanbase.

Paul was dropped from Bizaardvark after neighbours complained of the “living hell” caused by parties and noise at his Californian mansion in 2017.

In June 2020, Paul was arrested during protests following the death of George Floyd, with charges of criminal trespass and unlawful assembly later dropped. Two months later, the FBI were seen carrying firearms out of his house.

There were also allegations of sexual assault in 2021 made by fellow TikTok star Justine Paradise, which Paul denied.

Dustin Poirier only had to point at the scoreboard to win his latest dispute.

It’s no secret that Poirier and fellow lightweight contender Michael Chandler have long disliked each other, with their feud culminating at UFC 281 in November 2022 when Poirier defeated Chandler by second-round submission in a “Fight of the Night”-winning duel.

Despite the respect was shown in the cage that night, there’s still plenty of animosity between Poirier and Chandler, and Chandler used a word association segment with ESPN to take a shot at “The Diamond.”

Watch the clip below, in which Chandler called Poirier “salty.”

It didn’t take Poirier long to respond and he didn’t have to say much, simply posting the finish from their fight on Instagram Stories (h/t Championship Rounds):

Chandler has other fish to fry this Saturday as he takes on another past opponent in Charles Oliveira in the co-main event of UFC 309 in New York. Let’s hope Chandler is recovered from Poirier’s burn by the time fight night rolls around.

Redemption. Eryk Anders reflects on how beating a drug habit changed his life—and what could have been.

Trial. Conor McGregor testifies in a civil suit stemming from a 2018 sexual assault allegation.

Laughable. Stipe Miocic doesn’t know what’s up with Jon Jones ahead of their UFC 309 main event fight.

Truth. Tom Aspinall knows whoever wins between Jones and Miocic won’t be the “undisputed” anything.

Jones.

Miocic.

Oliveira.

Nickal.

And the rest.

Tyson and Paul face off.

Embedded.

Break it down.

No Bets Barred. Jed Meshew brings you the wildest wagers for Paul vs. Tyson and UFC 309.

*chuckle*

Ngannou and Reug Reug.

FORTY. FIVE.

NERRRRRRRRD.

David Onama (12-2) vs. Roberto Romero (8-3-1); UFC 309, Nov. 16

The top-2 fights at UFC 309 are intriguing, but as far as narratives go they have zero juice. Jones has spent 90 percent of his media time being asked about Tom Aspinall, not Stipe Miocic, and Michael Chandler’s rematch with Charles Oliveira came out of nowhere.

That’s not to say these fights won’t deliver because they definitely could. It’s just that the lack of enthusiasm surrounding the final UFC pay-per-view of 2024 is understandable.

If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @AlexanderKlee or @JedKMeshew on Twitter and let us know about it. Also, follow MMAFighting on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and like us on Facebook.