“Who’s he trying to hide from?” Dana White defends Stipe Miocic amid Jon Jones’ accusation of ‘ducking’

Jon Jones vs Stipe Miocic has the potential to be the biggest heavyweight title fight of all time, but lately, there have been several rumors regarding Miocic possibly ‘ducking’ Jones.

The newly crowned heavyweight champion Jon ‘Bones’ Jones was quick to call out the heavyweight GOAT Stipe Miocic after demolishing Ciryl Gane in under three minutes at UFC 285. Jones recently took to Twitter to call out Miocic for possibly opting out of the mega fight.

Yo @stipemiocic only you the UFC and I know the truth, you dodged me all of 2022 – July, September & December.
Now I’m hearing rumors that we may not be fighting this July.

— BONY (@JonnyBones) March 16, 2023

Miocic though was quick to respond to these serious allegations by keeping things simple as he shared a fight poster dating July 8th featuring himself and Jon, captioning “See you in July”.

See you in July. pic.twitter.com/lH7ZzemPCH

— Stipe Miocic (@stipemiocic) March 16, 2023

What did Dana White have to say about Miocic ‘ducking’ Jones?

Like many fight fans around the world, UFC President Dana White remained optimistic about this mega-heavyweight fight taking place sometime this year. White also firmly backed Miocic and had high praise for his illustrious career regarding Miocic as one of the Greatest heavyweight fighters of all time.

“Stipe has never tried to get out of anything, ever. White said “This guy is looked at as the greatest or one of the greatest heavyweights of all time, and I don’t think Stipe is trying to get out. Stipe’s been fighting his whole life, who’s he trying to hide from?” He continued. “You know what I mean? It doesn’t even make sense. Plus, this will be if not the biggest, one of the biggest fights of his life.”

Why hasn’t Stipe Miocic fought after UFC 260?

Miocic hasn’t fought in the UFC for a long time now. His last fight dates back to March 2021 at UFC 260 where he fought Francis Ngannou for the second time and suffered a brutal knockout loss early in the second round. In an interview earlier this year, the former champion talked about his absence from the fight game.

He said “I had a lot going on, man, Just spending time with my family and had personal things going on that I needed to take care of, but overall I’ve just been busy, and the way things shook out with these fights, it just didn’t happen the way it was supposed to. I was ready to go but just never got the call.”

Stipe Miocic surely isn’t the youngest fighter around as he will be turning 41 later this year. Hence a two-year absence from the cage surprised many and now the highly regarded GOAT has the opportunity more highlights to his already-established career.