It’s no secret that Stipe Miocic desires a heavyweight championship rematch with Daniel Cormier.
Before he suffered a first-round knockout loss to Cormier in the UFC 226 headliner this past July, Miocic set a promotion record with three consecutive heavyweight title defenses. That type of consistency in a tumultuous division — the Ohio firefighter had also won nine of his last 10 overall before running into “DC” — leads Miocic to believe he deserves a return date with the champion.
Cormier, meanwhile, has stated that he plans on retiring before he turns 40 on March 20. Of course, the American Kickboxing Academy product has been seeking a potentially lucrative matchup with Brock Lesnar ever since the WWE star entered the Octagon to confront Cormier following his victory at UFC 226. However, Cormier has also stated that he would rematch Miocic if the Lesnar bout doesn’t come to fruition.
Miocic recognizes that Cormier’s retirement deadline is drawing near, and on Monday, he called for a rematch with the reigning heavyweight champion.
“[Daniel Cormier], March 20 is coming up quick,” Miocic wrote on Twitter. “Let’s settle this and get this fight on the books before you blow out the candles on that cake.”
.@dc_mma March 20 is coming up quick. Let’s settle this and get this fight on the books before you blow the candles out on that cake.
— Stipe Miocic (@stipemiocic) January 14, 2019
Although Cormier has stated his retirement plans, UFC President Dana White believes otherwise. White envisions multiple fights from Cormier before he calls it a career.
“I would obviously like to see [Jon] Jones and Cormier fight again at heavyweight,” White told TMZ Sports in November. “Right now Cormier’s team wants him to retire now. They want him to retire right now. I hope we can get three more fights out of him.”
Miocic, meanwhile, has not competed since his loss to Cormier at UFC 226. The Strong Style Fight Team representative owns notable wins over the likes of Junior dos Santos, Alistair Overeem, Fabricio Werdum, Mark Hunt, Andrei Arlovski, Francis Ngannou and Roy Nelson during his promotional tenure.