Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
“Everyone’s going to change their opinion about it. I always get sh*t on it seems like.”
Despite being crowned heavyweight GOAT following his epic trilogy with Daniel Cormier this past Saturday, Stipe Miocic still feels he doesn’t get the recognition he deserves as UFC heavyweight champion.
Miocic beat Cormier via unanimous decision in the UFC 252 main event to retain his heavyweight title and, while he’s happy to cement his legacy as the greatest heavyweight of all time, the part-time firefighter still feels he gets ‘sh-t on’ by the fans.
“We’ll see on Monday,” Miocic said at the UFC 252 post-fight press conference, per MMA Fighting’s Damon Martin. “Everyone’s going to change their opinion about it. I always get sh*t on it seems like.”
“Listen, I’m just happy to cement my legacy,” he added. “Everyone’s talking about legacy. Only reason I’m happy to cement my legacy is to show my daughter, if we have more kids, to show them that hard work pays off.
“Listen if you do something and you put your mind and effort into it. You do good things. I’m just happy where I’m at. I’ve done a lot but it wasn’t just me though. It was my coaches, my amazing wife, my family, my friends, they always supported me and backed me up.”
Miocic is happy with the decision but feels he could have finished Cormier if he was a just little more patient in the second round.
“Yes, 100 percent I would have finished him,” Miocic said of the right hand he landed on Cormier towards the end of the second round. “He was stumbling. Just like the last fight, in the second fight, in the fourth round, I had him in the same spot. I rushed in too fast. If I would have stepped back just a little bit, one step back, I think I would have caught him.
“He was [still rattled at the start of round 3], I could see it. That’s why I kind of pushed it a little bit. But he also caught me in the first round. I was trying to slip and he hit me in the back of the head. It was not intentional, just when he caught me I was like ‘whoa!’ and I looked up and I could still see, thank God.”
UFC president Dana White has stated that Miocic’s next title defense will be against Francis Ngannou, whom he originally beat via unanimous decision back in 2018 to retain his heavyweight title.