Ahead of his title fight against UFC’s undisputed heavyweight champion Jon Jones at UFC 309, Stipe Miocic’s power game has been called into question by MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko. With Jones being the absolute favorite to win the battle, Miocic will hope that he can put him to sleep and shut down his detractors.
Emelianenko doesn’t believe Miocic has the power to KO Jones. Calling his technique interesting, ‘The Last Emperor’ said that while the 42-year-old fireman had speed, he lacked power.
“He’s light on his feet but he doesn’t have enough power. It was evident in his fight against Francis Ngannou.”
Miocic won the first duel with Ngannou back at UFC 220 by unanimous decision in round 5. However, this was an anomaly by the fireman’s standards.
In the 20 fights he’s won in his career, 15 have come by the way of knockouts. So to mistake Miocic’s perceived lack of strength for a decline in his knockout prowess would be a mistake Jones will not want to make.
Besides, Jones himself is likely not going to be able to KO Stipe. It’s not his style. Despite his size advantage, Jones has never been a big hitter. He is just innovative and chips away at his opponents till they make a mistake or he forces their hand.
Jones depends on dragging the fight to the final rounds where he can keep his cardio up while his opponents fade away, making it easy for him to deal with them. It’s also probably why he doesn’t want to face Tom Aspinall despite the latter being the interim heavyweight champion.
Why doesn’t Jones want the Aspinall fight?
A some point, someone of relevance needs to point a finger at Jones and call him out for not fighting the interim champion. Aspinall held the division and kept it moving by not only winning the heavyweight title but also defending it while Jones recovered.
So why is the man Dana White claims is the pound for pound #1, the only man who walks out of a room after two men enter, so dismissive of the idea of fighting the Brit?
Is it because, in his career of 18 professional fights, Tom Aspinall has had a total fight time of 41 minutes combined? The longest he’s taken to finish an opponent was 3:45 seconds. And the fighter in question is none other than Alexander Volkov.
That is a scary fighter to contend with. So, what does an unmovable object who likes taking fights to rounds 4 and 5 do, when he is tasked with facing an unstoppable force who finishes fights within 2 minutes on average? Does he move? Does he duck?