Jon Jones out of UFC 295 with injury, title fight with Stipe Miocic called off

Jon Jones, the reigning UFC heavyweight champion, has withdrawn from his scheduled fight at UFC 295 due to an injury. As a result, his highly anticipated title bout against Stipe Miocic has been canceled, leading to a major reshuffle of the UFC 295 lineup.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, UFC president and CEO Dana White announced the news through a video shared on social media. The footage showed Jones sustaining a pectoral muscle injury during a practice session.

White revealed that Jones had torn a pectoral tendon off the bone, necessitating surgery for repair. The estimated recovery time for Jones is approximately eight months.

Typically, in such situations, Miocic would be assigned another opponent instead of being removed from the card entirely. However, since Jones is the current heavyweight champion and the key attraction of the fight, it would be impractical to pair Miocic with a replacement who isn’t Jones. ESPN’s Mark Raimondi mentioned the possibility of scheduling the Jones vs. Miocic title fight for a major event in 2024.

In place of Jones vs. Miocic, the UFC 295 fight card will now feature a light heavyweight title bout between Jiri Prochazka and Alex Pereira, with the title currently vacant. This fight was already scheduled for the event. Additionally, to maintain the excitement for the fans, an interim heavyweight title match between Tom Aspinall and Sergei Pavlovich has been included as the co-main event.

UFC 295 is set to take place on May 11 at Madison Square Garden and will be televised on ESPN+.