Stipe Miocic Recalls When He Stopped Caring About External Criticism

Stipe
Miocic is not bothered by fan criticism leading up to his
return to the Octagon.

Miocic will return to action after a hiatus of over three years to
challenge Jon Jones for
the heavyweight title in the main event at UFC 309
on Nov. 16 at Madison Square Garden in New York. The matchup has
been widely criticized, as Jones is adamant on fighting Miocic
while interim champ Tom
Aspinall sits on the sidelines. Although Miocic has cemented
his legacy as arguably the greatest heavyweight in UFC history,
many consider Aspinall the rightful title contender at the
moment.

However, Miocic has simply shut out all the chatter from detractors
going into UFC 309. The Ohio-based firefighter also admitted that
he might have been affected by fans’ criticism at an earlier point
in his career. Miocic more recently recalled the exact point in his
career when he learned to be unbothered by outside noise. It was
after a second-round technical knockout loss to Stefan
Struve in 2012 that Miocic realized how inconsequential all the
criticism from random strangers was.

“I think it was after I lost to Struve,” Miocic recently told Shakiel Mahjouri. “A few months
after that, I just stopped caring. I just didn’t care anyone. It
was like, ‘I don’t know these people. They don’t know me. Who
cares?’ It’s just noise outside. Just carry on with your life,
don’t worry about what everyone has got to bring to the table… Like
F ’em.”

Miocic won the heavyweight title with a first-round stoppage win
over Fabricio
Werdum in 2016 and defended it three times, the most in UFC
heavyweight history, before losing the belt to Daniel
Cormier in 2018. Miocic went on to reclaim his title in the
immediate rematch with “DC” and defended it again it their trilogy
before losing it to Francis
Ngannou via brutal KO in 2021.

Meanwhile, Jones returned to the Octagon after a three-year hiatus
in 2023 and made easy work of Ciryl Gane
with a first-round submission to win the heavyweight title in his
divisional debut. The former light heavyweight champ was scheduled
to defend his strap against Miocic at UFC 295 in November 2023 but
was forced out with an injury.