CLEVELAND — This time around, it is personal.
Former UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic has plenty of motivation heading into Saturday night’s rematch for the title against Daniel Cormier at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, but no more so than showing his one-year-old daughter, Meelah Claire, how to face and work through obstacles in the path toward a goal.
“Overcome adversity, that’s all it is,” Miocic told WKYC.com after the rematch was announced. “Life sucks. Life is the hardest thing, but I always look at it like, ‘There’s always someone having a worse day than you.’
“No matter how hard you get knocked down, it’s like the ‘Rocky’ movie. ‘No matter how hard life knocks you down, you’ve got to get back up and keep moving forward’ because that’s life, and that’s what I want to show her. No matter how hard it is, it’s going to be okay.”
Miocic knows a thing or two about responding to adversity.
Despite taking a thumb to the left eye on an attempted shove from the challenger early in the bout last July, 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.
“I’m going to bring it to him,” Miocic said. “He’s going to get a lot of me. It’s going to suck for him.
“I’m a better fighter than him,” Miocic said of Cormier. “In every aspect of the game, I was a better fighter. I was faster, stronger, more conditioned. It happens. It’s the sport. We wear small gloves, and anything can happen.”
STIPE TO ESPN: Daniel Cormier ‘won the lottery,’ expect ‘definitely different result’ in UFC title rematch
During his 13-month hiatus from the fight game, Miocic has spent plenty of time enjoying fatherhood.
“Honestly, having her is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me,” Miocic said. “She’s an amazing child. She’s an overachiever, as every parent would say because they’re biased toward their child, but honestly, she’s an amazing child. We learn something every day with her.”
According to Miocic, she has already begun displaying the toughness he has been known for in the octagon, and on the job as a firefighter/paramedic for the Cleveland suburbs of Oakwood Village and Valley View.
“She’s a little savage, too,” Miocic said with a laugh. “She doesn’t mess around. She’s tough. She doesn’t cry all the time. It’s the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me. I’m very lucky to have such a special child.
“Some of the things she does, I’m like, ‘What are you doing?’ She plays with her toys and she hits herself in the face, and she doesn’t even cry. Like that would hurt me, and she’s like, ‘Yeah, whatever.’ She’s weird. That’s what I love about her because I’m weird, so it works out well.”
Miocic will enter the cage Saturday night focused on taking the title from Cormier, and then, bring home the belt to share with his family.
“I’m going to show everyone that I’m the better fighter,” Miocic said. “That night was his night, and it will never happen again. He definitely won the lottery that night. Listen, I’m going to go out there and do me and I’m going to walk out with the belt.”