Daniel Cormier responds to Stipe Miocic's "eye poke" allegations
Former UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier has responded to reigning champion Stipe Miocic accusing him of intentionally poking the latter in the eye during the pair's first two fights.
Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic have shared the Octagon twice previously. The first time the pair met was back in 2018 when Cormier, then light heavyweight champion, moved up to the heavyweight division to challenge Miocic for the latter's title. Cormier shocked the world by knocking out Miocic in the first round of the contest.
The next time Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier threw down was in 2019 when Miocic leveled the score, showing championship heart to weather early offense from DC and then going to work on the body in the later rounds and finally managing to stop Cormier in the fourth round and reclaiming the heavyweight title.
Daniel Cormier responds to Stipe Miocic's "eye poke" allegations
Following both of these contests, Miocic accused Daniel Cormier of intentionally poking him in the eye. Ahead of their trilogy fight which is set to go down on August 15, Cormier has responded to Miocic's allegations. Speaking to MMA Fighting, Daniel Cormier said that he'd never purposely poke someone in the eye.
“I’m not purposely doing that. I’m not purposely poking him in the eye. That first fight, I kind of poked him in the eye because I’m shorter, I have the 16-ounce gloves, I can kind of flick my hand towards guys and hit them when they’re a little bit out of range. I think that’s what happened the first time. The second time, once I think my knuckle got jammed into his eye but that’s not a finger. I’m not trying to poke the guy in the eye. That’s f**king stupid. I don’t wish long term damage to this guy’s eye. I don’t wish that the guy can’t see out of his freaking eye. That’s crazy."
While Miocic has accused Daniel Cormier of poking him in the eye, Cormier has now accused the reigning heavyweight champ of poking him in the eye on a few occasions.
“I’ve gotten thumbed to the eye by Stipe before,” Cormier said. “It’s not like he’s never thumbed me in the eye. He’s stuck me in the eye before. Whatever.”