Daniel Cormier Overcomes His Demons to Beat Stipe Miocic and Become a Double Champion…
Wow. Just wow. What a night this was. UFC 226 had two massively hyped heavyweight fights as its main and co-main events. The first was awesome, inspiring and historic, as Daniel Cormier united his light-heavyweight title with the heavyweight strap to become the second UFC fighter to hold two titles simultaneously. The less said about the co-main, the better.
This was a big deal for a lot of reasons. A genuine super-fight between two elite caliber fighters with amazing records. Cormier was an Olympic wrestler and former Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Champion, and Miocic the most successful UFC heavyweight in UFC history.
Stipe Miocic was the bookmaker’s favorite going into this one. A lot of questions were asked about Cormier’s ability to deal with the modern heavyweight. How would he cope with the height and power of Miocic? Pretty good actually. He’s now the baddest man on the planet.
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Violent
The Las Vegas crowd at the T-Mobile Arena were in dire need of a lift after arguably the worst UFC heavyweight clash of all time, in an appalling spectacle between Francis Ngannou and Derrick Lewis. Disappointing guys. No matter, within 30 seconds of Miocic vs Cormier we had more action than that entire fight.
Stipe had early success with his punches, finding his range quickly. He tagged Cormier multiple times with his boxer’s jab, before briefly taking him down. DC got back to his feet, but a partisan crowd was in favor of the champion. Both men began to throw down, with Cormier displaying heavy power as he landed with strikes.
Referee Marc Goddard intervened when DC eye poked Miocic. They were quickly back into action and then exchanged heavy blows. A short clinch saw the champion try to withdraw, dropping his arms. Suddenly Cormier unleashed a lethal combination, dropping Stipe to the floor, followed by ground and pound. And NEW!
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— UFC (@ufc) July 8, 2018
Shocking
It’s fair to say that very few people expected Cormier to win in such a clean and efficient manner. Most people expected him to try and dominate Stipe with his wrestling and unleash brutal strikes from a top position like they love to do at American Kickboxing Academy – just ask Khabib Nurmagamedov.
Nope, instead, we found out that it doesn’t matter that DC is short for a heavyweight. He’s now 14-0 in the weight class, which is an absolutely exceptional record. He’s just so powerful and dynamic with the added weight. It would be so interesting to see him fight Jon Jones in the most romanticized division of them all.
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Call Out
Things got very crazy after this as the UFC went full WWE. Cormier was obviously delighted with his win – wouldn’t you be? He took the microphone from Joe Rogan and called Brock Lesnar into the octagon. Lesnar decided to play the villain and it was all very cheesy and silly, although he did make Cormier look good.
Take absolutely nothing away from ‘DC’s’ success. Does this change how you feel about him? He’s surely one of the greatest of all time now. As the shadow of Jon Jones draws closer…
