STIPE MIOCIC VS. DANIEL CORMIER
The final fight in this heavyweight championship best-of-three between Miocic and Cormier is about far more than just the UFC heavyweight title.
Whoever emerges victorious will lay claim to being the greatest heavyweight in UFC history, full stop. A 2-1 series win over the other man in this matchup, plus the quality of the resumes they’ve each assembled outside of their rivalry would make it difficult to even argue that someone else could hold that position.
This one is also personal, as the tension between Miocic and Cormier has grown with each subsequent booking. Initially, it was a clash between dogged competitors looking to prove their superiority, but when Miocic held out for a rematch, Cormier started picking at the former champion on social media, and that has increased as they’re again reversed roles and looked to make this trilogy bout happen.
The challenger has spoken about mistakes he made in the second fight that needed correcting and will be adjusted by the time they step into the Octagon together for a third time, while Miocic has always simply accepted the results of his last outing and moved forward, so it will be interesting to see what kind of changes Cormier implements this time around and how they impact the outcome of this fight.
Stylistically, nothing has changed — Miocic remains the bigger man with greater one-shot power and more fluid boxing, while Cormier must still rely on getting inside and using volume, pressure, and pace to chip away at the champion in order to create high-impact openings.
We talk about legacies a great deal in this sport, trying to determine where a fighter stands in the pantheon of all-time greats before they’ve finished fighting and we have a compete picture of their careers, but it’s different with these two. Miocic has already beaten the best heavyweights of his time and a second win over Cormier would be the icing on the cake of an excellent career, even though other challenges remain on the horizon, while the excellence Cormier has displayed across two divisions cannot be denied and a second victory over Miocic would make it very difficult to leave him off of any All-Time Top 5 lists in the future.
Each of the first two fights were “edge of your seat” type encounters and there is no reason to believe the third instalment in this trilogy will be any different.
Get your popcorn ready, settle in, and enjoy — this is going to be good.
