During fight week media interactions, athletes rarely are far from a bottle of water.
But only the heavyweights have the luxury of filling a plate of food, fielding questions while enjoying a meal.
As much as Q&A sessions aren’t Stipe Miocic’s cup of tea, at least he had his veggie wrap Wednesday afternoon during UFC 309 media day, his first wide interaction with reporters since his last fight more than 3 ½ years ago.
“They still suck,” Miocic, the former heavyweight champion who returns in Saturday’s main event at Madison Square Garden where he challenges Jon Jones for the title he held twice previously, ribbed reporters about fielding their questions. “It’s gotten better over the years. I’ve accepted it. I understand.”
For Miocic (20-4, 15 finishes), that’s “part of the game,” and what matters most to him is that he’ll finally get his chance to reclaim the title he lost to Francis Ngannou in March 2021.
If he had his way, Miocic would have taken care of that bit of business last November when he and Jones were first booked for the Garden, the delay caused by Jones’ torn pectoral muscle less than two weeks ahead of UFC 295.
At the end of the day, Miocic is just happy to get the fight he wanted most upon his return from the yearslong layoff against Jones (27-1, 17 finishes), arguably the GOAT of mixed martial arts whose only career loss 15 years ago came via controversial disqualification.
“I wanted Jon Jones more than anything,” Miocic said. “But it wasn’t gonna happen, it wasn’t gonna happen. But [I’m] happy it worked out the way it did.”
Unlike Miocic, a career heavyweight who doubles as a full-time firefighter in his native Ohio, Jones made his name as the most dominant light heavyweight champion in the sport’s history.
He’s a neophyte at the biggest weight class in the UFC, having won in March 2023 the title vacated by Ngannou’s free-agent departure to PFL. He’s merely 1-0 at heavyweight.
Jones had taken three years off of competition to transform his body for the heavyweight transition, but the champion recently told The Post he’s already back down to 235 pounds from the 248 he weighed when winning the title against Ciryl Gane.
Miocic believes the big boys just aren’t the same as the competition Jones faced from his 2008 debut until last year’s heavyweight debut.
“Definitely a different ballgame when it comes to heavyweight,” said Miocic, a former collegiate baseball player and wrestler. “We’ve got bigger guys who hit harder, a lot of things that are different. We’ll see. I have some things up my sleeve, just like he does.”
Miocic presents a more well-rounded challenge to Jones than Gane, an athletic French kickboxer with poor defensive wrestling — a mix that made him a fine meal for Jones, who mauled Gane inside of a round with his violent mix of high-level wrestling and ground-and-pound.
The Ohioan hits like a truck — ask Daniel Cormier and Fabricio Werdum, the men he defeated to twice win the heavyweight crown — and his wrestling background makes him no easy target to be pulled into a Jones-friendly world.
No other fight on the UFC 309 bout order rivals the attention on the headlining clash, but one man who won’t even compete in the city this weekend has been stealing the thunder of Jones-Miocic: Tom Aspinall, the interim champion crowned last November on the night Jones and Miocic were first meant to meet.
For the bulk of Jones’ time in front of the assembled media Wednesday, the two-division champion delved into his mindset behind looking ahead to a fight against light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira, the decorated former kickboxing king who also has won titles in multiple UFC weight classes, than Aspinall in a unification bout.
That revelation, divulged to The Post last week, has not sat well with many vocal fans and media members online.
Miocic, a cut-to-the-chase man of relatively few words, largely hasn’t had to deal with that. Plus, there’s a sense that the 42-year-old may call it a career Saturday night regardless of the result, although he has not revealed the truth of the matter.
He’s focused on the task at hand, matching Randy Couture’s record of three distinct UFC heavyweight title reigns.
And while the first two each are meaningful, Miocic imagines the third will be the sweetest of all.
“They’re all special,” Miocic says, “but maybe this one, I think, because it’s the Mecca; it’s Jon Jones. It doesn’t get any better than that, or bigger.”
