Both LeBron James and Stipe Miocic brought championships to Cleveland, a long-suffering sports city, in the same year.
That’s why Miocic can’t be mad at his fellow Ohio native for leaving the city for greener pastures. For the second time in his NBA career, James departed the Cleveland Cavaliers as a free agent — this time for the Los Angeles Lakers. However, during his second tenure with the Cavs, James brought a title to Ohio in an improbable series victory against the Golden State Warriors in June 2016.
Miocic, who captured heavyweight gold with an upset victory over Fabricio Werdum just one month prior at UFC 198, believes James had a right to make the decision he made.
“Good for him. Whatever’s best for him and his family,” Miocic said on “The Rich Eisen Show.”
“He came back, said what he was gonna do and got a title back to Cleveland. Can’t be mad at the man.”
Miocic hasn’t had a lot of interaction with James, but he did get to meet some of the Cavalier players not long after their championship win.
“Actually I only met him in passing in stuff, but I got to meet them when I went to the World Series Game 2 against the Cubs [in 2016]. We hung out with all off them: LeBron, J.R. Smith, Kevin Love — they were awesome guys,” he said.
Ohio-native and @UFC heavyweight champion @stipemiocic weighed on #LeBron exit to #Lakers and #CRO making a run in the #WorldCup: pic.twitter.com/tVur4l4lZi
— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) July 3, 2018
As for Cleveland, Miocic isn’t the only athlete having success, and he believes the city will continue to thrive even as LeBron has moved on.
“We’ll be all right,” Miocic said during a recent media luncheon to promote UFC 226. “The city’s alive now and it’s about time. For a little while, all we had good [downtown] was food. Now we have food, good bars, good places to go to and I think it’s going to stay that way for a long time now.
“The Browns are making moves, the Indians are playing well … it’s not only about the Cavs anymore.”
Miocic will defend his heavyweight crown in a superfight against light heavyweight king Daniel Cormier at UFC 226 in Las Vegas on Saturday.