In spite of being the first and only man to defend the Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight title three times, Stipe Miocic has thus far been denied a chance to regain that belt, and he’s getting tired of being overlooked.
Miocic agreed to take on light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier back in July for the UFC’s first ever champion-versus-champion title fight featuring the promotion’s two heaviest divisions. Miocic was dispatched at the end of the opening round with Cormier going on to become only the second ever dual-division champion, behind Conor McGregor.
Back in October, the UFC made the surprise announcement that Derrick Lewis had been offered a short notice fight against Cormier to save the main card at UFC 230 after Dustin Poirier versus Nate Diaz was scrapped due to an injury suffered by “The Diamond.” Given that Lewis was fresh off his late win over Alexander Volkov in October, it left observers — particularly Miocic — perplexed at the decision.
With Cormier expected to retire by the end of March 2019, before his 40th birthday, Miocic clearly doesn’t want to wait around and reached out to the champion via Twitter.
.@dc_mma I was available at MSG. I’m available now. When are we fighting? I will finish you. pic.twitter.com/ij5KN7TaYE
— Stipe Miocic (@stipemiocic) November 20, 2018
Cormier responded to the callout and said if his fight with Brock Lesnar doesn’t go down he’d be open for a rematch.
Keep those fingers crossed that Lesnar doesn’t fight, because if we do fight you definitely wont like what’s coming ur way!!!!! I definitely wouldn’t wanna be you in either fight! I’d rather fight me! https://t.co/fImC3ul7z4
— Daniel Cormier (@dc_mma) November 21, 2018
Cormier is likely set for the biggest payday of his career with a heavyweight bout against former UFC champion and current World Wrestling Entertainment superstar Brock Lesnar early next year. Lesnar is currently several months into the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) testing pool which requires all fighters to be tested regularly during a six month period to ensure the fighters are not taking any performance enhancing substances.
If all else fails, Cormier has a potential trilogy fight with his bitter rival Jon Jones and he has said that “Bones” would be the only fighter that would make him drop back down to the 205-pound division to defend his title.