UFC 226: Daniel Cormier Aims High Against Stipe Miocic

Twelve months ago, there was a heightened sense of important to Daniel Cormier’s light heavyweight championship bout with Jon Jones. Not the least among the reasons for that importance was the idea that the fight would be Cormier’s last chance for a sport-shaking win—a victory that could elevate him to being considered one of the five or six best fighters ever.

He entered the fight at 38 years old; only one fighter besides Cormier has ever won a UFC championship bout after their thirty-eighth birthday. Cormier’s 2015 loss to Jones carried a heavy weight; trilogies usually don’t happen after one fighter loses the first two bouts. It was win and be one of the very greatest to ever do it, or don’t.

He didn’t.

After Jones knocked Cormier out in their second meeting with a head kick followed by rapid-fire elbows, only the strangest circumstances could have led us to where we are one year later: in the final delays before Cormier, again, has a chance to earn that elusive, sport-shaking victory.

The path began with the revelation that Jon Jones failed a drug test from a sample taken the day before the fight. Then it wound to Cormier’s impressive rebound in January against Volkan Oezdemir. In the fight immediately following that, heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic curbed Francis Ngannou’s momentum. With the UFC unimpressed with the box office potential of their other heavyweight contenders, they offered the next heavyweight title shot to Cormier.

Cormier’s athletic career has been a journey of climbing to the highest peaks, but invariably meeting failure at the very top. He fell to Cael Sanderson in the NCAA Division I Wrestling finals. In the 2004 Olympic games, he lost Khadzhimurat Gatsalov, the eventual gold medalist at 96 kg. He was named USA wrestling’s team captain for the 2008 Olympics, but he was unable to compete after going into kidney failure due to his weight cut. When he faced Jones the first time in 2015, Cormier was unbeaten in MMA; he’d never lost as much as a round. But he lost to Jones, and Jones beat him again two years later (the fight was later overturned to a no contest).

These are losses and disappointments that can break an athlete, and so Cormier’s perseverance through them may be the defining trait of his career. But however impressive his grit, he still requires that one defining win to break through the next level. He needs to overthrow the obstacle that guards the top of the mountain, so he can stand alone at the top. Jon Jones was one of those obstacles. Stipe Miocic is another.

Miocic is in the midst of the most successful heavyweight title run in UFC history. His first three opponents in that run—Fabricio Werdum, Alistair Overeem, and Junior dos Santos—were proven world-class heavyweights. Miocic knocked all three out in the first round. In his most recent bout, Miocic thoroughly conquered the terrifying Francis Ngannou, who rode a momentous wave heading into the heavyweight title shot.

On paper, Cormier is a favorable match for Miocic. Miocic’s height, reach, and boxing advantages mean Cormier will need to close the distance. When Cormier closes the distance, his real problems begin, as it puts him directly into Miocic’s firing range. As a wrestler, Cormier is vastly more credentialed than Miocic, but the size difference will play a role in that department as well.

Cormier competed at heavyweight through his first thirteen fights. At the time, he befuddled top heavyweights like Antonio Silva and Josh Barnett with disruptive hand speed, but at 39, and competing against a quick heavyweight in Miocic, Cormier probably won’t enjoy a significant speed advantage. He also pressured opponents with great effectiveness, which is something he carried down to light heavyweight. If Cormier’s wrestling is on point and giving Miocic issues, he can wear down the champion. But Miocic isn’t uncomfortable fighting while backing away—that’s how he flattened Fabricio Werdum—and he pressures well himself.

To compare him to one of Cormier’s past opponents, Miocic doesn’t have the variety of weapons that Jon Jones does, but the weapons he has are much more destructive. Cormier has beaten fighters that have aspects of Miocic’s game—Antonio Silva had the size, Anthony Johnson had the power and wrestling—but Miocic is several things rolled into one that ultimately make for a tremendous challenge for Cormier.

Cormier agreeing to face Miocic speaks to an unrelenting desire to be everything he can be in mixed martial arts. The same desire was evident in the Strikeforce World Grand Prix. It was laid bare in the fifth round against Alexander Gustafsson. It showed itself in the fights that took him back to Jon Jones. It was apparent in the brainstorming he did losing to Jones again to think of a way he could get to Jones a third time. The difficulty of the matchup for Cormier only enhances what a victory would mean—not just the signature win of his career, but among the most notable wins in MMA’s short history.

On Saturday, Cormier will make his case for being the best fighter in MMA history. No matter what happens, the majority won’t quite place him on that pedestal, but if nothing else, they can’t say he didn’t do everything he could to make it there.

Dan Plunkett has covered MMA for 411Mania since 2008. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @Dan_Plunkett.