Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic are currently 1-1 across two previous fights, and the expectation is that they’ll meet in a tie-breaking trilogy fight in the near future. The date for this trilogy fight, however, is still a mystery.
Speaking to MMA Junkie, Cormier shed a bit of light on the timeframe for this fight. He believes that, as the UFC’s calendar for the first quarter of 2020 is filling up, there might not be time for his tie-breaker with Miocic until at least June.
“There’s no time for us to fight until maybe June,” Cormier said. “The way the UFC quarterly schedule is looking, the UFC essentially, with them announcing Tony (Ferguson) and Khabib (Nurmagomedov) for April, there’s really no time. We’re going to be waiting a little bit.
Cormier added that he’s starting to feel physically ready for his third fight with Miocic, who now owns the UFC heavyweight title, but that he’ll defer to his rival as the date for the fight is decided upon.
“It’s tricky,” Cormier said. “I would like it to happen sooner than later, that’s all I would like to say. I feel like the more time I get away from last year’s back surgery, the better I feel, and I’m starting to really feel like myself now. The further I get away from this surgery, the better I’ll be. They told me when I did it, after about a year is when it would really start to feel everything was back in order and I’m starting to feel that now.
“I’m ready to go, but he’s the champ. He’s the champ, he makes the rules,” Cormier added. “So I’m on standby and I’m waiting to see when this guy says that we’re going to fight. When he does, I’ll be prepared. I’ll be ready – even more prepared than the last time because I feel I can prepare better from the very start right now.”
Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic first met in July of 2018. On that occasion, Cormier swiped the heavyweight title from Miocic with a first-round knockout. Just over a year later, in August of 2019, Miocic reclaimed the title and avenged his previous loss with a fourth-round TKO of Cormier.
Cormier, like most fans, is pleased with the rivalry so far, and excited to write its final chapter.
“I think Stipe and I have a fantastic rivalry,” Cormier said. “I won the first fight in tremendous fashion, he won the second fight in tremendous fashion. I feel like we’ve had the first two acts of a three-act drama and we have to do the trilogy fight and eventually we’re going to do that.”
How do you see a rematch between these two heavyweight legends going?
This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 12/9/2019.