Photo by Joe Scarnici/Getty Images
Stipe Miocic reclaimed the heavyweight title by stopping Daniel Cormier in the UFC 241 pay-per-view (PPV) main event earlier this month in Anaheim, avenging his first-round knockout loss to “DC” at UFC 226 back in summer 2018.
So with each fighter tied at one apiece, it would make sense to book a heavyweight rubber match, winner take all, for some point later this year, or perhaps early 2020. But that doesn’t make much sense to former division kingpin, Junior dos Santos.
“I think this trilogy doesn’t make any sense,” Dos Santos told MMA Fighting (transcribed by BJPenn.com). “Miocic proved he’s the champion. That’s what I mean, this is the most dangerous division in any sport. Once you connect the punch, your opponent is probably gonna go down. And that’s what happened in their first fight. Cormier connected a good punch, Miocic felt the punch. It was the same moment that I’m trying to explain for you what happened with me and Ngannou. It was a lucky moment. Not taking anything away from ‘DC’ again. But it was a lucky moment.”
It sounds like Dos Santos is suggesting that Francis Ngannou was also the beneficiary of a lucky punch when he melted “Cigano” at UFC on ESPN 3 back in June, one of four knockouts the Brazilian has suffered since Cain Velasquez put him out to pasture in late 2013.
“Now Miocic went there. He suffered, he survived for the first [three] rounds and came back and he pulls himself [up] and got the victory,” Dos Santos said. “Man, that was a brilliant performance. I was a fan of Miocic before and now I’m more a fan of him as a fighter and as a person too. He’s a great guy. But he deserves to be the champion. He deserves to be the baddest man on the planet right now, so it doesn’t make any sense to have this rematch with ‘DC.’”
I’m sure Ngannou would agree.
Cormier is held in fairly high regard within the upper echelon of the UFC brass, so promotion president, Dana White, is likely to hold off on booking anything relating to “DC” or Miocic until the Olympian can decide his next move.
Which probably won’t include this guy.