By Mike Voltaggio, Staff Writer
UFC 309 took on Saturday, November 16th at “The Mecca,” also known as Madison Square Garden in New York City, marking a nearly one-year return since the last event hosted at the Garden in UFC 295.
UFC 309 was full of spectacle and sport as not only did fans get to see the return of some of the octagon’s favorites, including Michael Chandler and Jon Jones, but UFC 309 also saw its fair share of notable spectators, including the 45th President of The United States and 47th President-elect Donald Trump.
Nicholas Fioravanti, a senior communications major, shared his thoughts on the event as well as what he thought about the UFC as a whole.
“I think the UFC is really interesting now,” Fioravanti states. “It has such a grasp on not only the sports world but also on the betting world. You see a lot of advertisements about DraftKings and other betting apps and other things of the sort. The UFC is a big cash cow. They gain a lot of money from these events with pay-per-view. I think it is a highly entertaining product and every numbered event we’ve seen has been better than the last. These pay-per-views only seem to get more and more popular as each one passes. Speaking on 309 specifically, I thought most of the fights were very entertaining. Viviane Araujo vs Karine Silva was great. Brazilians are some of the best fighters in the UFC so seeing two Brazilians square off in an absolute war was entertaining. Obviously the main event was awesome, Jon Jones always entertains whenever he’s in the octagon and him going up against a heavyweight legend in Stipe Miocic was a great way to cap off the event so overall I thought it was a great showing.”
Daniel Desmond, a sophomore education major, also shared his thoughts on 309
“I thought it was very interesting,” Desmond states. “I thought the first three fights of the main card were ok, but I think they were definitely overshadowed by the co-main event fights. Especially when you have guys like Michael Chandler making his return to the octagon who always seems to be a must-watch and Jon Jones who is plain and simply Jon Jones.”
The pay-per-view was one to be remembered and was filled with its fair share of famous moments that will be replayed for some time. Most notably, a spinning heel kick by Jon Jones to the gut of Stipe Miocic to secure the TKO and what could only be compared to a WWE move by Michael Chandler as he performed a back-body drop on Charles Olivera while Olivera tried to secure a rear naked choke on Chandler in the waning seconds of their lightweight bout. With an action-packed night, not all the fights delivered, including what was still a consensus “snooze fest of the night,” the middleweight fight between Bo Nickal and Paul Craig on the main card.
Fioravanti shared his thoughts on why the fight didn’t live up to expectations
“There was a lot left to be desired after seeing Nickal fight Craig,” Fioravanti said. “On the one hand, you have Bo Nickal who was a collegiate division one wrestling national champion, and on the other hand you have Paul Craig who is a master of Brazilian jiu-jitsu and there wasn’t a single successful takedown throughout the whole fight. They both practically stood there and tap danced with each other the entire time, which was more surprising to me from Nickal than from Craig because although Craig’s martial art is jiu-jitsu, most of his wins are by way of knockout so I thought that Nickal was going to try and immediately get Craig to the ground and try to go for submission as that is what Nickal seems to be best at so it just surprised me that Nickal wanted to stand up with Craig.”
Desmond chimes in as well.
“There weren’t many significant strikes and both fighters missed a lot of punches,” Desmond states. “You also didn’t see what you would expect from a fighter whose martial art is Brazilian jiu-jitsu. There weren’t any takedowns from Craig or any submission attempts which was surprising. Overall, the fight was a big snooze fest and Nickal just seemed to be in control the whole time even though he didn’t meet expectations as well and didn’t go after Craig like people thought he would.”
On the flip side, Fioravanti shared what his personal “fight of the night was”.
“To me, it was Olivera vs Chandler,” Fioravanti states. “These were two very experienced guys. Chandler has been in the game for a long time and has a lot of experience and he came into this fight in good physical shape after his two-year hiatus, but you could see that he emptied his gas tank too quickly against Olivera and that the conditioning wasn’t there for Chandler. Olivera came into this fight with a fire and he understood the game plan. He wanted to let Chandler tire himself out and then from that point on all he had to do was maintain ground control. I do have to hand it to Chandler though because that fifth round I did not see coming. Most guys would typically just give up but Chandler is relentless and he almost had Olivera and almost came back and also that body drop that he did on Olivera towards the end of the fight was too funny, but Olivera is just too good of a fighter to let something like a come back win happen against him, but it was great to see Chandler still be as entertaining as he usually is.”
Desmond shares the same opinion as Fioravanti.
“I feel like everyone’s favorite fight was Olivera verseus Chandler,” Desmond states. “Personally, I enjoy a fight where there are a lot of takedowns and Olivera secured multiple against Chandler. I also feel like the fight was closer than people made it out to be, if Olivera did not secure as many takedowns and submission attempts as he did, the fight would have been pretty neck and neck just based on total and significant strikes and Chandler maybe would have won if it came down to that. Also, you can’t beat the finish they had. It was one of the more entertaining and memorable final moments I’ve witnessed in a UFC fight.”
Although there were exceptional fights and fighters up and down the card, the man of the night was the first Heavyweight title defense for the champion, Jon Jones. After making his return from a recovery year due to a torn pectoral muscle, Jones seemed to not lose a single step and he took the fight straight to his opponent, UFC legend and former champion Stipe Miocic, punishing him with flurries of kicks, punches and elbows before landing a spinning heel kick to the gut of Miocic to seal the deal.
However, many fans took notice of Jones’s post-fight interview where the heavyweight champion seemed to dismiss the idea of a fight between him and the interim heavyweight champion in Tom Aspinall, instead favoring a contest against the UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.
Fioravanti shared his thoughts on Jones’s statements.
“I think, especially now in Jon Jones’s career, that it’s just kind of his MO to not call people out anymore and entertain these loudmouth kind of guys like Tom Aspinall. Also, I think by Jones not entertaining Aspinall he is actually creating more hype around that possible fight because he is getting Aspinall riled up and Aspinall has been wanting to fight Jones so I think by Jones not entertaining Aspinall at all he is actually creating bigger build-up because people are wondering what will Jones’s next move be. Talking about Pereira, I think it would be super entertaining to see a fight between Jones and Pereira and to see Jones go back to his roots in the light heavyweight division. We know that Pereira is more of a boxer and Jones is a wrestling, submission type of fighter so it would be an interesting clash of styles.”
Desmond offered his opinion as well.
“I feel like Jon Jones is scared of Aspinall,” Desmond said. “It is for the right reasons though. Aspinall is much younger than Jones and Aspianall might ruin Jones’s almost perfect/undefeated record. Pereira is right around the same age as Jones and both of them are coming toward the ends of their respective career, so I feel like Jones believes that it would be a closer fight and probably one that he has a better chance of winning and ending his career on a high note if that were to be his final bout.”
With UFC 309 in the rearview mirror, only time will tell what the future holds for not only the company but also these respected and talented fighters like Michael Chandler and Jon Jones who are perhaps in the waning moments of their careers.
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