Daniel Cormier expects Stipe Miocic trilogy in June, but timeline tricky

WASHINGTON – Daniel Cormier would prefer to close out his UFC heavyweight title trilogy with Stipe Miocic as soon as possible, but has already accepted he has no control over the timeline.

Cormier (22-2 MMA, 11-2 UFC), the former UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion, will meet Miocic (19-3 MMA, 13-3 UFC) in the final fight of his decorated MMA career sometime in 2020. After winning the first meeting in at UFC 226 in July 2018, “DC” dropped the belt in the rematch at UFC 241 in August.

Miocic suffered an eye injury in his title win that required surgery, though, and he’s still recovering. Cormier said that likely puts them on an early summer timeline.

“There’s no time for us to fight until maybe June,” Cormier told MMA Junkie. “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.”

The thing for Cormier is that time is of the essence. He’ll turn 41 in March, and for much of his career he said he’d never fight past 40. Back surgery ultimately delayed his original retirement plan, but he said the next clash with Miocic will be his final octagon appearance no matter the result.

Cormier said he’s feeling in tip-top shape now, and while he could easily jump into a camp and be ready to go in the next few months, he didn’t express much frustration over a potential half-year wait.

“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. 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.”

Although there’s been a number of trilogies over the course of UFC history, Cormier and Miocic is among the most unique. For Miocic, all three fights will come consecutively, making him the first in UFC history to fight the same opponent three times in a row.

For Cormier, it will be his third encounter with Miocic in his past four, with the lone outlier being a short-notice title defense vs. Derrick Lewis at UFC 230 in November 2018. It’s a compelling dynamic, and Cormier said he’s going to do everything in his power to be prepared for it, including working with boxing legend George Foreman.

“I had that Derrick Lewis stop in between, but I didn’t even get to train for that,” Cormier said. “I fought on three weeks’ (notice), so we’re pretty much in the same situation. I think what’s great for me is in five rounds of fighting I’ve won the vast majority of those rounds. That’s what feels good for me in my preparation. There are some things I need to change. Obviously he did a great job of adjusting and punching me in the body last time, and that’s what ultimately won him the fight. But I’ve already started to take the steps to try to improve that.

“I’m working with George Foreman now, and he showed me some tips to help with the boxing. The reality is it’s all boxing. Stipe isn’t kicking me very much, he’s punching and punching and I’m punching and wrestling. I’ve started to work on some things to try to shore up that issue that caused me so many problems last time.”

After trading knockouts in their first two meetings, Cormier vowed to defeat Miocic in the trilogy, regain the heavyweight title and exit the sport on top. He’s just waiting to find out the time and place, and once it’s official, he promises to be ready.

“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.”