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What made Daniel Cormier such an unstoppable force at heavyweight, despite his less-than-impressive size, was his ability to mix his offense, striking when his opponents expect him to wrestle and wrestling when they expect him to strike.
But once he stands in the pocket and trades blows … well, this happens.
That’s according to top heavyweight contender, Curtis Blaydes, who believes Cormier will let his ego get the best of him when “DC” fights Stipe Miocic for the third time at some point in early 2020, with each combatant already claiming one fight apiece.
“I’ll go with Stipe again,” Blaydes told MMA Fighting. “Especially after both got a win under their belts, if they do fight again, the rounds are going to be a lot more explosive. They’ve both seen what the other one has and they won’t be as tentative. I still think Stipe’s the better striker and he definitely has the reach advantage. It all depends if ‘DC’ goes in there with the mindset just to wrestle, he could probably win, but I think he has an ego. He wants to strike with Stipe and that will be his downfall.”
Cormier captured the heavyweight crown with a knockout win over Miocic in the UFC 226 main event in summer 2018. After making quick work of Derrick Lewis a couple of months later, “DC” returned to the cage at UFC 241, going down in flames in the fourth round.
Blaydes will be paying careful attention to this heavyweight trilogy, as a victory over Junior dos Santos in next month’s UFC Raleigh headliner could put “Razor” in line for the winner, assuming this fellow contender doesn’t have something to say about it.