Daniel Cormier reacts to Stipe Miocic interview

Earlier this week UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic reacted to Daniel Cormier's comment about him wrestling his way to the victory in their trilogy fight in UFC 252. Stipe said:

Every fight starts standing, don't forget that

Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic faced each other twice for the heavyweight title. Cormier got the better for Miocic in their first meeting, finishing him via a 1st round TKO at UFC 226. Miocic bounced back in the rematch and got his title back via a 4th round TKO win at UFC 241.

Daniel Cormier, while talking to MMA journalist Ariel Helwani in their podcast 'DC and Helwani' now has reacted to the heavyweight champion. Cormier said:

I have the ability to beat him in that, you know. The 1st fight was a 5 minutes stand up fight and we were tit for tat. The 2nd fight was a 20 minutes stand up fight and until the very end we were tit for tat if not me winning for the majority of the time

Cormier went on to brush aside the claims that he's afraid to stand and bang with Miocic in their upcoming fight. Cormier said:

I have the ability to stand with this guy. So there is no part of me that's afraid of Stipe Miocic, any way shape or form even though he won the last fight. I still feel I'm gonna beat him and beat him going away

You can watch Cormier talking about the upcoming fight here:

Cormier who is a former Olympian comes from a wrestling background who trains at American Kickboxing Academy under coach Javier Mendes. AKA also hosts undefeated UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Cormier notably ignored his corner's advice to wrestle in their second meeting and went his own way to stand and bang against Miocic for which he paid a heavy price. Cormier got tired at the later stages of the fight when Miocic took full advantage of it.

Cormier and Stipe Miocic are scheduled to face each other for a third time for the UFC heavyweight championship on August 15 at UFC 252.