mma / News
Daniel Cormier Expects Trilogy Fight With Stipe Miocic In June, Wants It Sooner
– Daniel Cormier recently spoke to MMAJunkie about his upcoming fight against Stipe Miocic. Highlights are below.
On When The Fight Will Happen: “There’s no time for us to fight until maybe June. The way the UFC quarterly schedule is looking, the UFC essentially, with them announcing Tony (Ferguson) and Khabib (Nurmagomedov) for April, there’s really no time. We’re going to be waiting a little bit. It’s tricky. I would like it to happen sooner than later, that’s all I would like to say. I feel like the more time I get away from last year’s back surgery, the better I feel, and I’m starting to really feel like myself now. The further I get away from this surgery, the better I’ll be. They told me when I did it, after about a year is when it would really start to feel everything was back in order and I’m starting to feel that now. I’m ready to go, but he’s the champ. He’s the champ, he makes the rules. So I’m on standby and I’m waiting to see when this guy says that we’re going to fight. When he does, I’ll be prepared. I’ll be ready – even more prepared than the last time because I feel I can prepare better from the very start right now.”
On Working With George Foreman: “I had that Derrick Lewis stop in between, but I didn’t even get to train for that. I fought on three weeks’ (notice), so we’re pretty much in the same situation. I think what’s great for me is in five rounds of fighting I’ve won the vast majority of those rounds. That’s what feels good for me in my preparation. There are some things I need to change. Obviously he did a great job of adjusting and punching me in the body last time, and that’s what ultimately won him the fight. But I’ve already started to take the steps to try to improve that. I’m working with George Foreman now, and he showed me some tips to help with the boxing. The reality is it’s all boxing. Stipe isn’t kicking me very much, he’s punching and punching and I’m punching and wrestling. I’ve started to work on some things to try to shore up that issue that caused me so many problems last time.”
On Rivalry With Miocic: “I think Stipe and I have a fantastic rivalry. I won the first fight in tremendous fashion, he won the second fight in tremendous fashion. I feel like we’ve had the first two acts of a three-act drama and we have to do the trilogy fight and eventually we’re going to do that.”