Why Cormier Fighting Lewis and Lesnar Could Be the Best Thing for Miocic's Career!

The fight has been made for Madison Square Garden in November, at UFC 230: current two-division (Light-Heavyweight and Heavyweight) Champion Daniel "DC" Cormier is scheduled to defend the heavyweight strap against Derrick "The Black Beast" Lewis.

Yes, there was a lot of controversy in the lead up. The original main and co-main events have both been scrapped: in the Valentina Shevchenko and Sijara Eubanks bout, the UFC came to their senses about booking such a hasty fight, while the Dustin Poirier and Nate Diaz fight is off due to Poirier injuring his hip.

Rockhold vs. Weidman II has now become the co-main event and Cormier vs. Lewis has been thrown together. To put that in perspective, Lewis fought on the Nurmagamedov vs. McGregor card from the 6th of October, and Cormier had previously not been scheduled to fight until his supposed January bout against Lesnar (which has now, according to various sources, tentatively, been rescheduled for March).

However, one man who is justifiably incensed about this is the man who DC defeated at UFC 226 to become the heavyweight champion: Stipe Miocic. Miocic holds the record for the most number of successful, consecutive heavyweight defenses, and even Cormier has admitted that Miocic deserves a rematch as soon as possible, because Stipe has a legitimate claim to be considered one of the greatest heavyweight champions of all time.

If DC takes on Lewis now and Lesnar in March, he won't be able to give Miocic his rematch (DC has promised to retire by his 40th birthday, the 20th of March, 2019).

But it's this writer's opinion that this could actually be a great thing for Stipe. Miocic hasn't even got back into training after the Cormier fight. His wife just recently gave birth to his baby daughter, so he would have likely squandered his rematch if he had taken it in November.

And there's another thing: while it's almost certain that Cormier will beat Lewis, it's by no means certain that he will beat Lesnar. He and Lesnar are essentially cut from the same cloth, and while DC might be a better wrestler than Lesnar, the fact is that Lesnar is about 40 pounds heavier and seems fuelled to win at this stage in his career. Quite frankly, a loss would be the end of Brock Lesnar's MMA ambitions.

But Miocic can beat Lesnar quite handily. Truth be told, Lesnar has only one path, at the most, to a victory over Stipe, while Stipe could beat him in any number of ways.

Add to that the fact that any event with Lesnar in it is always going to prove to be a massive payout for everyone concerned, Stipe would actually end up making much more money from a title match against Brock than he would from a title match against DC—which is why DC prefers facing Lesnar to Stipe in the first place.

In which case, his only hope is that DC finds himself unable to retire without avenging himself against the only fighter to ever defeat him (and defeat him twice at that): Jon Jones, who's returning at UFC 232 after two years away from the sport.

Of course, it's now time to put in all the standard disclaimers: Lewis could beat Cormier, Lesnar probably won't beat DC, and DC might just retire while still the champ, vacating his belt in the process.

In that case, Miocic might just be left at a sticky end. Considering how bereft the heavyweight division is of big-name talents, even regaining his belt might not be enough to elevate his career if DC vacates the strap before retiring.

Please sound off with your thoughts in the comments section below.

Edited by Riju Dasgupta