Jon Jones’ Fight Gives Michael Phelps Much-Needed Excitement for UFC 309: “LFG”

An athlete as brilliant as Michael Phelps might find it hard to leave the sport behind and adjust to his retirement life. But Phelps seems to be making the most of it after having his time at the center stage. These days, the swimmer spends most of his time with his family of six in Arizona. As a child of divorced parents, he enjoys doing small things with this family, like eating dinner together, as he was not used to this before. “As a kid, I always wanted to have dinner as a family, but with my parents separated, that didn’t happen,” he revealed to Style.com.

However, his quieter life doesn’t mean Michael Phelps has left his passion for sports behind. The legendary swimmer has previously expressed his love for baseball, golf, and lacrosse. Interestingly, Phelps also has a keen interest in MMA and has frequently been spotted in the audience at major fights. Ahead of the highly anticipated UFC 309 main event, the tournament’s social media team reached out to Phelps for his prediction. Unsurprisingly, he sided with the fan favorite to take the victory.

Michael Phelps picks Jon Jones as the winner of the main event of the UFC 309ADVERTISEMENT

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The UFC social media admin messaged Michael Phelps on Instagram and asked about his predictions for the main event heavyweight fight between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic. He was one of the numerous celebrities like Shaquille O’Neal, Steve-O and Channing Tatum who got asked their opinions. Phelps chose Jon Jones without any hesitation saying, “My guy Jon Bones Jones!!! LFG!!”

via Reuters

This was shared by UFC in an Instagram post along with the opinions of other celebrities. Michael Phelps shared it on his Instagram story, reiterating his opinion, saying, “Lfg @jonnybones.” It seems that the Olympic legend is really fond of the UFC fighter, who is considered the greatest MMA fighter of all time by a section of fans. Jones’ record of 27-1, which includes 10 title defenses of his light heavyweight belt, a category where he spent most of his career.

In UFC 309, he will defend the heavyweight belt he secured against Ciryl Gane last year, facing off against Stipe Miocic for the first time. While Miocic is widely regarded as one of the greatest heavyweights in UFC history, many fans aren’t favoring him to win. At 42 years old and returning to the octagon after a three-year hiatus, his chances appear slim compared to his younger, more active opponent. Michael Phelps’ prediction reflects a thoughtful and educated take on the matchup. It’s refreshing to see the legendary swimmer maintain his passion for sports, even eight years after his retirement. However, it seems that the swimmer is set to make his return to competitive sports for the first time since 2016, but not in the pool.

Michael Phelps is all set to compete in a celebrity golf tournamentMichael Phelps is gearing up to compete at Match: Superstars, which is set to telecast on TNT on November 21 and 22. It boasts a competitor list full of stars like Wayne Gretzky, Charles Barkley, Blake Griffin, Mark Wahlberg and Bill Murray. The competition will be played in a team format of duos, with Phelps being paired alongside The Departed star Mark Wahlberg.

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A prize money of $1 million is set aside for the winners. Thus, it is going to be a heavily entertaining watch for the fans. While this is an interesting development for Phelps, it does not come out as extremely surprising as he expressed his love for golf before.

In 2022, when asked about sports he loves other than swimming, the Olympic athlete said, “If I could choose anything, I would want to be a golfer.” In fact, Michael Phelps adores the sport so much that he decided to get his wife involved in it too. “I’m just obsessed. I got my wife obsessed too, which is nice, so we get to get out and play a (Jon) Rahm and he gives me a ton of shots, but I still compete. That’s one of the things I love about golf.” Thus, Phelps really enjoys playing the sport and could possibly even win the contest he’s competing in. He definitely can do that, as it won’t be the first time Phelps won in the sport.