Jon Jones Out of UFC 295 Fight vs. Stipe Miocic; Needs Surgery After Training Injury

The heavyweight title showdown between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic scheduled for UFC 295 has been canceled due to an injury suffered by the champion.

UFC president Dana White announced Jones tore his pectoral tendon during training and will require surgery that is going to keep him out for eight months.

Rather than have Miocic compete against someone else, White pulled him off the card and added Sergei Pavlovich vs. Tom Aspinall for the interim heavyweight title to the Nov. 11 show from Madison Square Garden.

A fight for the vacant UFC light heavyweight championship between Jiří Procházka and Alex Pereira will now serve as the main event for the MSG show.

Per ESPN's Marc Raimondi, UFC hopes to rebook the Jones-Miocic fight at some point in 2024.

Jones was set to make his first title defense after defeating Ciryl Gane for the vacant crown at UFC 285 on March 4. The bout was his return to UFC after a three-year absence and marked his first fight in the heavyweight division.

Miocic was poised to return to the Octagon for the first time since he lost the UFC heavyweight championship to Francis Ngannou at UFC 260 in March 2021. The 41-year-old said he signed on to fight Jones in part because he wasn't happy with how his last bout went.

"There's a lot of reasons," Miocic told MMA Junkie Radio. "One, I want to fight the best. I'm a competitor. I love to compete, and I love fighting. I'm still having fun. Two, my last fight didn't go as well as I wanted it to. I'm ready to bounce back and get that win."

Jones has talked about retiring from competition after fighting Miocic. He told Fox Sports Australia (h/t Raimondi) in March that this bout "will be plenty for me" and he wouldn't "have too much to prove" after a win over Miocic.

This fight would have been between two of the greatest competitors in UFC history. Jones is arguably the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. He's a two-division champion (heavyweight and light heavyweight) with a record of 27-1 with one no-contest in 29 fights.

Miocic is a two-time UFC heavyweight champion who set the UFC record for most consecutive successful title defenses with three during his first reign. He is 20-4 overall with 15 wins by knockout/TKO in his MMA career.