5. Stipe Miocic vs. Daniel Cormier II
Miocic’s heavyweight title reign ended abruptly at UFC 226 in July 2018 when Cormier knocked him out late in the first round. Heading into their rematch a year later, Miocic was determined not to let that happen again. He did make it out of the first round this time around. But the problem was that he was still coming out second-best against DC.
In fact, for the first three rounds, Miocic just didn’t seem to be able to make much headway at all against Cormier. The wrestler engaged him on his own terms on the feet and repeatedly beat him to the punch. In between the third and fourth rounds, it was clear that something had to change. In Miocic’s own words, that was to “stop fighting like a b****.”
There was more to it than that, though. Earlier in the week, Miocic had noted that fighters rarely target DC’s body, so that became his primary focus in the fourth round. After a couple of digging uppercuts to the midsection, he saw his opponent wince. Miocic knew he was onto something. Miocic continued to punish the body of the champion. One blow, in particular, seemed to hurt him and led to a barrage of blows that would send Cormier slumping to the canvas for a TKO finish.
