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What's the story?
Former UFC Heavyweight Champion Stipe Miocic, who lost his belt to LHW King Daniel Cormier at UFC 226, expressed his frustrations to ESPN at how things went down after their fight had finished.
Once Cormier knocked out Miocic in the first round to win the HW belt, Brock Lesnar was invited into the cage and got into a scuffle with him, with a view to set up a fight between them in the near future.
Miocic exited the cage without much fuss then, but had plenty of strong opinions about how it all went down a week later.
In case you didn't know...
Stipe Miocic broke the record for the most consecutive title defences at HW with three on the trot, before losing to Daniel Cormier at UFC 226.
Cormier, who was the LHW Champion, stepped up a weight class to challenge Miocic and now holds both the belts, becoming only the second man ever - after a certain Irishman to carry gold in two divisions simultaneously.
After the fracas involving Cormier and Lesnar at UFC 226, it is now expected that the duo will fight for the Heavyweight Title.
The exact date hasn't been revealed, but any fight can only materialize after Lesnar serves out the remainder of his 1 year USADA suspension that he accrued after testing positive for PEDs when he fought Mark Hunt at UFC 200.
It is expected that the fight may take place in early 2019.
The heart of the matter
The Lesnar 's**t show' however didn't go down well with Stipe Miocic. The former champion cited his resume as the most successful belt holder in the UFC's Heavyweight division as reason why the fight between him and Daniel Cormier should be run back.
He poured scorn on the idea that Brock Lesnar, essentially a pro wrestling star, could come back at UFC 226 and jump the line.
“I thought they were going to interview me and I was going to ask for a rematch,” he said of the immediate aftermath of the fight.
“When Brock came in, I said, ‘I’m out of here, I don’t need this circus". How can you give a guy a title shot who hasn’t fought in over two years, is suspended, and his last fight is a no-contest because he was taking PEDs?”
What's next?
Despite Miocic's misgivings, shared by a large population in the MMA fraternity, it is still expected that Daniel Cormier will fight Brock Lesnar in a UFC HW Championship bout early next year.
Lesnar will only be eligible to fight once he serves out the remainder of his USADA sentence, which is expected to stretch to January 2019.
Cormier has long maintained that he will retire before he turns 40 on March 2019, no ifs buts or maybes. Expect the fight to happen in that window.
Do you think giving Brock Lesnar a title shot so soon is fair? Have your say in the comments.
