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Stipe Miocic gives credit to Anderson Silva for reminding him to attack Daniel Cormier’s body at UFC 241 and recapture the heavyweight title along the way.
Inspiration can come from the most unusual places. In an effort to turn a losing fight around at UFC 241, Stipe Miocic decided to change his approach in the fourth round of his rematch against Daniel Cormier—attacking his opponent’s body with vicious left hooks over and over. Eventually leading him to a TKO win late into the round.
In an interview with Combate, Miocic mentioned that the idea to switch strategies and attack Cormier’s body came right after the third round—when Stipe remembered Anderson Silva hurting Daniel with a body kick when the pair met back in July 2016, at UFC 200.
“In the third round (I decided to change my strategy). I started to see it between the third and fourth rounds. My coaches were talking to me and I said ‘let’s attack his body’. He leaves it really open and nobody takes advantage of it. I remember Anderson Silva hit him with a body kick and that hurt him a little bit, so I thought of attacking him there, and it worked.”
Before the come-from-behind win over Daniel Cormier, Stipe Miocic (19-3) had been knocked out by ‘DC’ back in July 2018. The defeat marks Miocic’s only loss since an unanimous decision loss to Junior dos Santos in December 2014. In the meantime, Stipe scored wins over the division’s most notable names, such as Alistair Overeem, Fabricio Werdum, Francis Ngannou and dos Santos himself, in a rematch, among other athletes.
Now with the heavyweight championship once again around his waist, it seems as though a rematch against Francis Ngannou would be Miocic’s most likely next opponent.