While the world of Mixed Martial Arts wonders when Stipe Miocic will be fighting Daniel Cormier, the UFC Heavyweight Champion appears unbothered by the speculation.
Taking to Instagram on Tuesday night, Miocic shared a series of pictures of him playfully wrestling with his almost 2-year-old daughter, Meelah, at his Northeast Ohio area home. The series of photos also showed Miocic doing some landscaping in what doubled as an ad for Scotts Lawn Service.
"This is my life outside of the ring!!!" the 37-year-old Miocic wrote in the post, which was shared with his 1 million Instagram followers on Tuesday night.
Miocic's post comes just days after UFC president Dana White said he would consider stripping the Euclid native of his championship should he be able to face Cormier in the third fight of a championship trilogy in a timely matter.
“This whole crew [fighting at UFC 249] trained, we have two more groups of fighters coming in this week that trained and got ready,” White told reporters at UFC 249 in Jacksonville over the weekend, per MMA Junkie. "The division has to move on for all the other people. We want to do that trilogy fight then you got the winner of Francis [Ngannou] and [Jairzinho] Rozenstruik waiting in the wings, too. People are waiting. It’s the right thing to do.”
Last week, Miocic said he was waiting for Ohio to approve the reopening of gyms so that he could begin a fight camp at the Strong Style MMA in Independence. In the meantime, the champ -- who doubles as a firefighter -- has been working as a first responder amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Appearing on What's New on 3News on Tuesday, Miocic's wife, Ryan, discussed the situation with Jay Crawford.
"His gym, which is Strong Style MMA in Independence, is not allowed to open," she said. "So how do you train for a UFC heavyweight bout when you can’t train?"
She continued: "He’s surprised they’re putting so much heat on him when he never said no to a fight. So, I don’t think he held one above the other. It's just facts are right now we’re dealing with a pandemic and he’s always done both. I think he’s proven that. He has five belts at home. He’s always been able to hold down two different fire stations and defend the UFC heavyweight belt the most times in history, but again it's out of his hands.”
After originally winning the UFC Heavyweight Championship in 2016, Miocic successfully defended the belt a record three times before losing it to Cormier at UFC 226 in 2018. Last year, he recaptured the title with a fourth-round knockout of Cormier at UFC 241 before undergoing surgery to repair an eye injury he suffered in the fight.
Should White decide to strip Miocic of his belt, a match between Cormier and Francis Ngannou for the vacant title has been floated as a possibility.