Junior dos Santos isn’t sold on a potential trilogy bout between Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier.
Miocic and Cormier are coming off their UFC 241 rematch earlier this month. While Cormier knocked out Miocic in their first encounter, Miocic got his revenge with a fourth-round TKO in the rematch to reclaim the heavyweight gold. With the pair tied at 1-1 and Cormier being up on all scorecards before being stopped, many believe a third bout makes sense should “DC” choose to stick around.
For dos Santos, a trilogy bout isn’t the way to go.
He explained why during an interview with MMAFighting.
“I think this trilogy doesn’t make any sense,” dos Santos said. “Miocic proved he’s the champion. That’s what I mean, this is the most dangerous division in any sport. Once you connect the punch, your opponent is probably gonna go down. And that’s what happened in their first fight. Cormier connected a good punch, Miocic felt the punch. It was the same moment that I’m trying to explain for you what happened with me and Ngannou. It was a lucky moment. Not taking anything away from ‘DC’ again. But it was a lucky moment.”
As dos Santos continued, he heaped praise on Miocic for adjusting in the rematch.
“Now Miocic went there. He suffered, he survived for the first [three] rounds and came back and he pulls himself [up] and got the victory. Man, that was a brilliant performance. I was a fan of Miocic before and now I’m more a fan of him as a fighter and as a person too. He’s a great guy. But he deserves to be the champion. He deserves to be the baddest man on the planet right now, so it doesn’t make any sense to have this rematch with ‘DC.’”
Do you agree with Junior dos Santos? Should Stipe Miocic move away from Daniel Cormier for his next bout?
This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 8/30/2019.