Daniel Cormier Wants Stipe Miocic To Fight And Force The UFC's Hand Into a Rematch

Former UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic has been campaigning for a rematch against Daniel Cormier since their title fight at UFC 226 in July last year.

Cormier knocked Miocic out in their bout to claim the title and has since gone on to defend the belt against Derrick Lewis.

Miocic hasn’t accepted a fight since then and is still holding out for a rematch against Cormier and recently claimed a fight against him would mean more than reclaiming the heavyweight belt. Cormier believes Miocic is acting “entitled” and on the recent episode of The MMA Hour he elaborated on those comments (via MMA Fighting):

“This is crazy shit right here,” Cormier said. “Stipe hasn’t fought in so long that Jon Jones will have fought twice since he last got to the Octagon. When’s the last time that’s happened?

“Jones will have had two fights and at the rate that he’s fighting, maybe three by the time Stipe fights again if he waits and fights me in the summer. That’s crazy, because Jones doesn’t fight very often. That’s crazy.”

Cormier said he isn’t pleased that that Miocic has decided to put his foot down and demand a rematch rather than trying to remain active and force the UFC’s hand to give him another shot.

“I just don’t like that I’ve fought again and he still hasn’t fought,” Cormier said. “I understand where he’s coming from because I’ve been there with Jones twice and I’m like, ‘God, I know I can beat him if I can just get another opportunity to do it. I know I can beat him.’ And it burns at you and it eats at you, especially the way that he lost the fight. I get it. But I don’t have to really owe anything. I’ve said that before, I’ve said he deserves it. I’ve said that. He deserves a rematch if I don’t get to fight Brock. I’ve always stood by that. But you can’t just go, ‘Well, you owe it to me.’ I don’t want to sit here and talk bad about Stipe because I like Stipe. I think he’s a good guy. He’s a fantastic father. He’s a pillar of the community. He’s a great fighter. I think he’s great. But you can’t sit there and say, ‘He owes me.’

“When I lost to Jones the first time, I thought, ‘Man, if I can just get another opportunity.’ I didn’t just sit and wait. I went right back to work at trying to re-earn the opportunity if they weren’t going to give it to me. I wasn’t the champion obviously, so the circumstances were different, but I right away scheduled a fight to try to get my way back to that fight and it’s almost like he hasn’t really taken that approach. That’s one of the things where I’m kind of like, what’s going on? Why hasn’t he fought yet still?”

Cormier said he’d be happy to fight Miocic again if he could put himself back in the shop window as the next guy in line to fight.

“Just go beat somebody up, then you can’t ignore it,” Cormier said. “He can go knock somebody out again and it’s like, ‘Well, you gotta fight him.’ Then the last memory of him in the Octagon is not him getting knocked out.”

Cormier revealed that UFC President Dana White has three fights in mind for the 39-year-old who recently announced that he would be delaying his retirement due to some niggling injuries which have kept him out of action.

“If we talk about Dana’s schedule of fights: he said Lesnar, Stipe, Jones,” Cormier said. “I guess that last one at 205 would probably be the best because I don’t want to be going down to 205 back up to heavyweight. It would be Lesnar, Miocic, and Jones if I had three fights.

“If I had three fights. If I had two, it may be Lesnar, back to 205 to fight Jones. But it’ll be on my terms.”