Was Stipe Miocic right to wanna fight in a standard octagon? (Opinion)
Stipe Miocic has not been a regular inside the octagon for the better part of four years now. Since September 2016, Stipe Miocic has set foot inside the octagon just four times, something which also related to UFC not giving him his immediate rematch against Daniel Cormier.
Stipe Miocic dug his heels in and had to wait thirteen months for the rematch to materialize, as he felt irked at UFC’s treatment for him once he lost the title. That has extended even for the negotiations for their final trilogy fight, as many outlets revealed the champ’s unhappiness at fighting inside a smaller octagon at UFC Apex.
This is not a conspiracy on the UFC’s part against Stipe Miocic, though. The ongoing pandemic has brought a lot of uncertainty in the past six months, and the promotion has looked to navigate through such problems with the UFC Apex as it has sought to cut out on the intangibles that come with COVID-19.
Stipe Miocic does have a point, though. This pandemic has brought UFC a couple of fight of the year contenders, which has all come at UFC Apex with the smaller octagon.
The Dustin Poirier vs Dan Hooker fight and the Josh Emmett vs Shane Burgos bout were all contested inside the smaller octagon at UFC Apex and turned to be violent striking affairs. Stipe Miocic must have the knockout he suffered against DC in the back of his mind when he felt uncomfortable in signing his contract to fight DC a third time.
Daniel Cormier sent out a message to his opponent during the DC & Helwani show, claiming he would go for the single-leg repeatedly when they meet on August 15 for the last time. That may just be a ruse though by DC as he looked sharp while striking for most of their second fight before fading away during the fourth round.
We have seen fighters do it before with Alexander Volkanovski claiming before his first fight with Max Holloway that he would look for takedowns. Those takedowns never materialized as promised pre-fight as Volkanovski used it as a decoy to use leg kicks as he got himself a unanimous victory against “Blessed”.
Cormier might do the same things as he plays mind games with the champion before they step inside the octagon. Miocic, who turns 38 four days after their bout at UFC 252, will also know the fact that Cormier landed more strikes than him in the second fight.
If not for that beautiful change of digging left hooks to Cormier’s body, Miocic would have found himself on the wrong end of the judge’s scorecard. Their last fight also showed that maybe Miocic’s chin wasn’t as bad as many people felt as he withstood many of DC’s power punches at the start of the fight.
What could we expect from Stipe Miocic in the smaller Octagon?
Stipe Miocic, like any other sensible human being, will not be looking to let his chin endure unnecessary damage though. The smaller octagon is also a deterrent for the use of footwork, which means fighters will have to negotiate through a lot of fireworks being thrown at them.
All the above reasons might have made Stipe Miocic unwilling and unhappy to sign that contract for August 15. For us fans, it might just mean that we get to see the best heavyweight fight ever witnessed inside the octagon two weekends from now.