Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones and former UFC Interim Heavyweight Champion Ciryl Gane will fight for the vacant UFC Heavyweight Title tomorrow night at UFC 285.
Stipe Miocic is a former UFC Heavyweight Champion and he says he’ll get an opportunity to become a three time champion this July at UFC International Fight Week.
“They said International Fight Week,” Miocic said in an interview with former rival Daniel Cormier (transcript via Alexander K. Lee of MMA Fighting). “That’s what I was told.”
Miocic hasn’t competed since he lost the heavyweight title to Francis Ngannou at UFC 260 in March of 2021.
The former heavyweight champion also stated that he wanted to be the one to fight Jones first, before Gane got the opportunity, but the bout never came to be.
“I think miscommunication,” Miocic said. “I was down for the fight, I just think they went in a different direction every time. Nothing against the UFC, they’re just trying to make the fights, I get it, and unfortunately it just wasn’t my time again. There was only one time I just couldn’t fight because I physically wasn’t ready, I had a lot going on. I said, ‘I can’t do it in eight weeks, I can do it in 12.’ They said, ‘No, it’s OK, we’re doing it.’ It just didn’t work out.”