CLEVELAND — In five weeks’ time, Cleveland native Stipe Miocic once again will challenge for the UFC heavyweight championship when he battles Daniel “DC” Cormier in a rematch at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
Miocic is a man on a mission heading into the August 17 fight, and looking to regain the championship he defended a record three consecutive times before suffering a knockout loss to Cormier late in the first round of the title fight at UFC 226 in Las Vegas last July.
In Las Vegas for International Fight Week obligations, Miocic had a face-off with Cormier to promote their upcoming bout and he posted a photo to Instagram with a message for the defending champion.
“You have created a monster,” Miocic wrote in the caption to the photo. “There is nothing more I look forward to than August 17.”
Cormier reluctantly took a rematch with Miocic despite wanting to fight former UFC champion Brock Lesnar, but such a bout fell through when Lesnar elected to return to World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., and that does not sit well with “DC,” a future hall of famer in the twilight of his MMA career.
“I’ve known Brock for a long time,” Cormier told TMZ Sports earlier this summer. “I’ve competed with Brock for a long time in wrestling, and I’ve always been a fan of his, and then, we had that great moment out in UFC 226, so the build was gonna be fun.
“But you know, you can only really worry about things that you can control, and I can’t control that he doesn’t want to fight anymore. He’s done. I know the UFC and Brock tried to make this happen. It just didn’t, so I appreciate all parties involved trying to get it done, but it just didn’t work, man.”
Miocic took a calculated risk by not fighting another top contender, and instead, waiting for the rematch, which is something that did not sit well with Cormier.
“I did not like the approach he took,” Cormier said in an appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani back in May. “I just think he’s so good, even if he’d fought over the course of the year, he still would be in this same position, so I don’t feel I have to be nice to him anymore.”
Despite taking a thumb to the left eye on an attempted shove from the challenger early in the bout, Miocic felt he was winning for much of the first round against Cormier in his fourth defense of the UFC heavyweight championship.
However, out of a clinch, Cormier faked an uppercut, came over the top with a right-handed strike and floored the defending champion. With Miocic on his back, Cormier pounced and landed multiple strikes before the referee called a stop to the contest.
The loss brought to an end Miocic’s record-setting run to the most consecutive successful defenses of the heavyweight championship. Miocic is 18-3-0 in his professional career heading into the Cormier rematch, including a 12-3 mark since joining the UFC in 2011.
Cormier is 22-1 with one no-contest in 24 professional bouts. The one no-contest was originally a knockout loss at the hands of Jon Jones in July of 2017, but a failed test gave the UFC light-heavyweight championship back to Cormier and set him on a path for a return to the heavyweight division.
