Jon Jones is set to defend his UFC heavyweight title on November 16.

The MMA legend will square off against former two-time champion Stipe Miocic at Madison Square Garden in New York on November 16. 

Jones is widely regarded as the best MMA fighter of all timeGetty

Dana White originally announced the fight during an interview on Friday. 

“Jon Jones is gonna fight in Madison Square Garden in November,” he told Complex Sports. 

“And then if he wins, or Stipe wins, we see what happens next.”

ESPN – the UFC’s official broadcast partner – confirmed the exact date 24 hours later. 

Jones hasn’t fought since winning his belt against Ciryl Gane in March 2021.

The 37-year-old was booked to face Miocic at UFC 295 last November – but he suffered a bicep injury and has been out of action ever since.

In his absence, Tom Aspinall has become widely regarded as the best heavyweight in MMA by picking up two resounding knockout wins.

Aspinall stopped Sergei Pavlovich in 69 seconds on the card Jones fell off. 

In July, he KO’d Curtis Blaydes even quicker at UFC 304 in Manchester. 

The interim champion has been trying to goad Jones into a fight ever since. 

Miocic looks good ahead of his first fight in nearly four years@stipemiocic – x

Aspinall believes he should be fighting Jones this yearGetty

Aspinall will be the backup fight at UFC 309. He’ll be on standby and ready to step in on a moment’s notice if either Jones or Miocic fall out of their main event clash.

“He wants the easy fight, Stipe, for now,” Aspinall said on the latest episode of his TNT Sports ‘Fighting Lab’ show.

“But I have the faith. Jon’s getting a bit ticked off with me at the minute, which is my intention.

“I’m trying to test his ego to see if he could be like, ‘Actually, I’m the man at heavyweight, I’m gonna show you’.

“So that’s what I’m working on at the moment. It seems that Jon is getting a little bit fuming with me so that’ll be nice if he continues that.

“He might be trolling everybody, who knows?”