Stipe Miocic Describes The Bitter Taste Of UFC 226 Title Loss To Daniel Cormier
Stipe Miocic is known for going hyperbolic when things are going his way but after a shocking first-round TKO loss to Daniel Cormier at the main event of UFC 226, his opinion is equally muted.
After three successful title defenses, his reign has come to an end and DC is now a two-division champion. The T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas was on fire on Saturday… but there were so many shocked fans since the underdog won in more than spectacular way.
Stipe Miocic and his wife are expecting a child, and it might be a reason for his weaker performance. He was asked at the press conference whether maybe this fact distracted his attention from the fight. Stipe claims there were no external factors and claims his hat is off to Cormier. (via MMAFighting.com)
“I lost. Plain and simple,” Miocic said. “There’s no excuses. He’s the better man tonight.”
On the other side, awaiting a daughter might be a tremendous way to heal the wounds after a tragic loss to Daniel Cormier. Stipe will be looking to heal, recover, and spend some time with his newborn. He didn’t say when will he return but he hopes for a rematch with Cormier in the future.
“It sucks, losing is not fun at all. It sucks,” Miocic said. “But in perspective, I look at it — I’m going home right now to my beautiful wife, who’s having my child. There’s better things in life than losing. It sucks, I want to come back and get a rematch, of course. Right now, it’s DC’s day, good for him.”
After the fight, there was a lot of drama and trash-talking since DC called Brock Lesnar to enter the octagon. The two have a heated confrontation. The assumption is that The Conqueror would challenge Stipe Miocic if the result was different. However, Stipe doesn’t even think about this possibility nor he wants to face the winner of possible Lesnar vs Cormier fight.
There are many other weight divisions which are also extremely tough to predict. Just remember a surprising win of Anthony Pettis over Michael Chiesa. UFC is sometimes impossible to predict. All you need is one clear shot to the head or an open situation for submission. Stipe Miocic also said he doesn’t even remember clearly which technique Cormier was using to send him to the ground.
“I think I was winning the fight, I took him down one time for a little bit, I was holding him against the cage,” Miocic said. “He hit me with some good shots and I was hitting him with some good shots, we were going back and forth, but I thought I was backing him up a lot more and then he caught me with a right hand, or whatever it was — elbow I think it was, I don’t know, something.
“A good shot. What are you gonna do? Heavyweights. Like I say all the time.”
Actually, it was a right hook off the clinch. What do you think, will this defeat create problems to Stipe Miocic? Would you like to see Miocic vs Cormier rematch soon?
