UFC analyst believes Stipe Miocic will fight Tom Aspinall

Anthony Smith has a prediction for the upcoming UFC 309 event. He expects Stipe Miocic to face Tom Aspinall in an emergency match. Interim champion Tom Aspinall has been announced as the official replacement for the heavyweight title fight between Jon Jones and Miocic.

It will be at the top of the card on November 16th at New York's Madison Square Garden. Jones has made it clear that he will not step into the octagon to fight Aspinall. But as we all know, Dana White declared Aspinall a reserve fighter at UFC 309.

Tom Aspinall as replacement fighter

Commentators and the UFC world have raised many questions about Jones or Miocic's willingness to fight such a dangerous opponent on short notice. Famous commentator and good friend of Khabib Nurmagomedov, Daniel Cormier, also believes that the chances of one of the UFC 309 main event fighters changing their schedule and fighting Aspinall are zero percent.

Anthony recently appeared on the Believe You Me podcast. They discussed the various aspects of the upcoming events, including UFC 309. According to Smith, Aspinall is a good fighter, but the other fighters are still legends. They can face the interimweight champion, but he has selected Miocic as the fighter to face Aspinall in UFC 309. Both Jones and Miocic have been out of the Octagon matrix for some time now.

Anthony Smith on Stipe Miocic

Jones' last fight was against Ciryl Gane in March 2023, with Jones securing a victory over the challenger and making him the heavyweight champion. On the other hand, Miocic isn't much different from Jones as he hasn't stepped foot in the cage in a long time but was a two-time UFC heavyweight champion. In March 2021 he lost his belt to Francis Ngannou (The Predator).

Anthony Smith said this about Stipe Miocic. “He just doesn't do it. Whether it's Jon or Tom Aspinall, he'll train about the same. Not much will change. He has this mentality where it's not about what is this guy going to do and how am I going to react to it, but his whole mindset is turned on its head. Here's what I'm going to do and he has to deal with it. That’s the way Stipe’s mindset has always been, and whether it’s Jon or Tom, it doesn’t change anything for Stipe.”

Final thoughts

After all the analysis and the fact that Jones is moving on from Aspinall, Smith and Miocic came to the conclusion that if the fight with Jones is delayed, Miocic will choose Aspinall. They made it clear that they are not pushing Jones to pull out of the fight, but in situations like this a fighter has to make difficult decisions.

In such situations, a fighter should not care about the well-being of the company, the fans, or anyone other than himself and his legacy. What do you think about the upcoming fight between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic? Feel free to use the comments section to share your thoughts.