The Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier rivalry is about to become a trilogy this weekend. The first fight saw Cormier upsetting Miocic to become a dual-champion. In the rematch a year after, Miocic returned the favor and snatched his heavyweight title back. What’s in store for us in their third fight? Check out our preview of this bout below.
Although his base is wrestling, Miocic is a man whose mission it seems every time he steps inside the Octagon is to finish the fight via knockout as soon as possible. Of his 19 wins, 14 have been via knockouts. Among his high-profile knockout victims are Mark Hunt, Andrei Arlovski, Alistair Overeem, Junior dos Santos, and of course, Cormier in their rematch a year ago. In the second fight against Cormier, Miocic made sure to use his size advantage, particularly his 7.5-inch reach edge. Miocic repeatedly targeted Cormier’s body in the fourth round and scored a TKO win to reclaim the heavyweight belt he lost in the first encounter. Defensively, Miocic will still have to be wary of Cormier’s attempts to cut the distance between the two, which the latter did so well in their past two dates. Miocic is second overall among active UFC heavyweights in terms of control time and tops in total strikes landed.
Cormier knows the feel, taste, smell, and whatnot of a title fight. After all, nine of his past 10 bouts were title fights. Like Miocic, Cormier will enter the Octagon this weekend feeling very fresh, as he hasn’t fought in almost a year. His last fight being his loss to Miocic in August of 2019. Unlike Miocic, Cormier has shown that he can be versatile in finding ways to win. He has 10 wins via KO and five via submissions. He’s been knocked out just once (last fight vs. Miocic) and has yet to be submitted. Despite his defeat at the hands of Miocic, Cormier should be pleased by his overall performance in their past two fights. In the first one, Cormier was able to sneak his way into the range of Miocic, landing more total strikes and significant strikes before ending it all in the first round via KO. Even in the second fight, Cormier was winning the striking battle and the fight up until he got stopped in the fourth round. Cormier landed almost 200 more strikes. He scored more strikes than Miocic in distance, in clinches, and on the ground.
