After beating Daniel Cormier, Stipe Miocic emerged victorious in their trilogy and successfully defended his heavyweight belt. The champion sat down at the podium during the post-fight press conference to talk with the media.
“I felt like I did a good job,” said Miocic when asked about how he rates his performance. “There are a few things that I didn’t do great but when two guys fight each other three times, these things happen, nothing is gonna go perfect.”
“Some people had even at 2-2, some people had you up 4-1 going into the last round. How did you feel going into the fifth round?” Asked a reporter.
“It doesn’t matter if I’m up 4-0 I’m trying to take the 5th round because you never know with the judges,” Miocic said “But I felt confident when Bruce Buffer said 49-46 twice I knew I had it”.
The conversation then shifted to the eye poke in the third round that started a controversy.
“His Eyesight was Impaired, did you feel bad about it?” Asked a reporter.
“Yeah, I did.” Said Miocic. He then added “I apologized to him during the fight, it wasn’t intentional. He did it to me before and it wasn’t intentional, he apologized too.”
When asked about the prospect of fighting Jon Jones or Francis N’Gannou, Miocic hinted at his birthday.
“I don’t really care right now, I have my birthday in a few days.”
On the subject of retirement, Miocic said this.
“I think about retirement after every fight, since my first fight I think about retirement.” But the heavyweight champion doesn’t have a current plan to retire.
“I love what I do,” Miocic said. “The minute I’m not having fun and it acts like a job, I’m out. Right now, I’m good. I’m happy. I had a great camp, to the best of my abilities, especially being quarantined with this pandemic going on but honestly I feel great.” He also added that he doesn’t know if he’ll fight until 40 but maybe a little bit longer.
Miocic was on the top of his game last night against Cormier and said he’ll fight anyone for his next fight.
“I’ll fight anyone,” Miocic said. “I don’t care. I love what I do.”
During the fight, Miocic knocked Cormier down at the end of the second round and looked close to finishing him.
“If I had a little bit more time I 100% would have finished him.” Miocic said “I think I rushed him two fast, I had him in the same spot as the last fight. One step back would have been enough to catch him and finish the fight.”
Miocic was asked about his status as the greatest heavyweight of all time. He instead used the occasion to highlight the difficulty of getting ready for this fight and the crucial role of his family and coaches.
“I missed a lot of stuff man,” said Miocic about his training camp during the pandemic “Especially family time, the graduation parties, the baptisms… but everyone supported me, I wouldn’t be here without my family and my coaches.”
When asked about the state of the division and what he would do next, Miocic said this.
“There’s a lot of guys, Ngannou’s looking great, Blaydes, I don’t know. It’s what the UFC wants. I fight. I’m not a matchmaker.”
“My focus is on Saturday. That’s all I care about. There’s a lot of good guys coming up. It’s great to see the division getting stronger. Right now, Saturday’s my main objective.”
The greatest to ever do it 🏆
🐐 @StipeMiocic #UFC252 pic.twitter.com/vEnjFGwcMQ
— UFC (@ufc) August 16, 2020
