Throughout his illustrious career, former UFC Heavyweight Champion Stipe Miocic has often been labeled as the underdog. From his run-ins with Francis Ngannou, to his trilogy with Daniel Cormier, he has always had the odds stacked against him, and that narrative hasn’t changed going into his main event showdown with Jon Jones at UFC 309 this Saturday. Coming off of a giant 1,335-day layoff, the 42-year-old Miocic will attempt to not only regain his title, but also to try and become only the second competitor to win the UFC heavyweight belt three times behind Randy Couture.
That attempt will not come easy, however, as the Ohio native is staring down the man many believe to be the greatest fighter of all time. This reputation does not come lightly, as Jones had previously reigned over the light heavyweight division in utterly dominant fashion, racking up 11 total title defenses across two different stints as champion.
After such a long time away from the Octagon, no one can predict what kind of performance Miocic will bring to the cage this weekend. For the perennial 265-lb. great and first responder, though, a championship bout against one of the best fighters on the planet will surely feel like just another day in the office for him.
Miocic: The Early Days and a Trip to the Baseball Diamond
Born to parents of Croatian descent in 1982, Miocic competed in a variety of sports in his youth. The most prominent among these were wrestling and baseball; he ended up wrestling at the NCAA Division I level, as well as reaching all the way to Division II in baseball, even attracting the attention of the MLB at one point.
It was during his time in university in 2002 that he began to take his first steps into MMA after being invited to wrestle with King of the Cage Super Heavyweight Champion Dan Bobish at what would become his gym at Strong Style MMA Training Centre. This led Miocic to competing in both amateur mixed martial arts and boxing, garnering five straight first round victories in the former and winning a Golden Glove Championship in the latter. This cross training in various styles, complemented with his wrestling background, molded Miocic into a superb, well-rounded fighter, which allowed him to win his first six contests as a professional, capturing the North American Allied Fight Series Heavyweight title as well.
The UFC Comes Calling
Cutting a swath through the Midwestern regional scene, Miocic soon received his chance to fight in the UFC in late 2011, where he was matched up with Joey Beltran at UFC 136. Unlike his past opponents, Beltran was able to withstand much of his power shots, and the fight ultimately went the distance, which was the first time in Miocic’s career that he ever needed the judge’s scorecards. Looking in control the entire time, however, the Ohioan walked away with the victory, winning his UFC debut by unanimous decision.
The cards wouldn’t be necessary for his next two bouts, as Miocic logged two fantastic stoppage wins over his next two Octagon appearances, knocking out Phil De Fries and Shane del Rosario. Undefeated in the promotion at 3-0, the hard-hitting firefighter was shaping up to becoming an imminent contender in the weight class. That was until he collided with the towering Stefan Struve during his first ever UFC main event at UFC on Fuel TV 5, losing his perfect record in brutal fashion by way of second round knockout to the Dutchman.
Miocic Undaunted After Loss
The loss proved only to be a slight roadblock to Miocic, however, as he got right back on track toward the top of the division by barreling through three of its then hardest hitting names in Roy Nelson, Gabriel Gonzaga, and Fábio Maldonado. This three fight win streak set Miocic up with a high-profile contest opposite former heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos. In the opening rounds, the Midwesterner looked stellar, battering the Brazilian badly, but then after hurting Miocic in round three with a punch, it was dos Santos who started to control the pace of the match. In the end, both men were awarded Fight of the Night honors, but it was dos Santos who emerged the victor by unanimous decision.
Although his run at the title had taken another serious setback, Miocic left the cage in good spirits, with him even saying that the fight, “Proved that I can hang with anyone. My confidence went up a lot more.” This confidence manifested in spades for the budding contender, for he rattled off another two wins against Mark Hunt and Andrei Arlovski to earn his shot to contend for his first ever world title at UFC 198 versus Fabrício Werdum. Possessing a strong ability in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, considering he won the strap over Cain Velasquez, it stood to reason that the champion’s goal was to take the Ohio bruiser to the ground and work for the submission. Bafflingly, though, Werdum opted, instead, to run at Miocic to score a hasty knockout, leading to the American to land a solid uppercut while moving backwards to flatline him, making Miocic the new UFC Heavyweight Champion.
First Reign as Champ
As the undisputed king of the 265-lb. division, Miocic positively thrived, quickly notching two first round title defenses in less than a year over Alistair Overeem and Junior dos Santos in a rematch. In his third outing as champion, however, Miocic looked to have faced the hardest test of his career up until that point when he locked horns with surging African/French knockout artist, Francis Ngannou. Skyrocketing up the heavyweight ranks, “The Predator” had left behind a trail of complete annihilation, stopping all six of his UFC opponents in less than three rounds each.
While the whole world seemed to have written off Miocic as a dead man walking into the cage, he would surprise everyone by putting an emphatic stop to Ngannou’s hype train. Utilizing his wrestling and superior boxing skills, the champion completely shutdown the challenger’s offense and wore his gas tank down to nothing, easily taking the contest with a trio of 50-44 scorecards across the board.
Having bested the scariest power puncher in the promotion, and making it look like child’s play, Miocic was ready to move on to his next test in the form of light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier. Moving up to 265-lb for the first time in five years, Cormier was looking to become one of the very few fighters in MMA history to become a simultaneous two-division after defending his 205-lb belt three times. After surviving several blows from the likes of the hulking Ngannou, pundits believed that Miocic would be able to handle the power of a shorter man like Cormier. Those beliefs were swiftly dashed, however, when “DC” managed to knock out the champion after tangling him up in the clinch to steal the heavyweight throne and ending Miocic’s time at the top.
A Return and Well-Earned Revenge
Taking more than a year off to recover and reset, Miocic finally made his return to action at UFC 241, where he came to blows once more with the same man who took his title, Cormier. The stage was set for an epic runback between two of the greatest 265-lb. competitors on the planet, a runback that Miocic seemed to be on the way to losing after falling behind in the first three rounds of the bout. Bloodied and seemingly outmatched, the prospects for a come-from-behind victory for the Midwesterner looked to have all but eroded. That was until Miocic started targeting the body of Cormier with a handful of well placed body shots that quickly drained his stamina, ultimately leading to a fourth round knockout after the challenger scored a devastating right to put Cormier down for good.
In a first for the UFC’s heavyweight class, Miocic and Cormier meet up for a third and final time in what would become the division’s first 265-lb. title trilogy fight a year later at UFC 252. Unlike their previous two encounters, this time, they would be fighting in an isolated room in the Middle East on Yas Island as the Covid-19 pandemic was in full swing, causing all in-person shows to become crowdless. Without a crowd of thousands cheering them on, both men engaged in what was arguably the most important battle for their legacies. The fight ended up going to the judge’s scorecards, with Miocic claiming the unanimous decision to earn his fourth total title defense and put his rivalry with Cormier to bed for good.
Seven months later, Miocic put his strap on the line again at UFC 260 in yet another rematch, this time opposite Ngannou who had rebounded with a 4-1 record since his defeat to the champion, with all four of his wins coming in a minute or less. Before the contest even began, concerns were raised that Miocic was perhaps too small to stop Ngannou, who weighed in at 263 lbs. compared to the incumbent’s 234 lbs. This size difference showed itself on fight day when the Xtreme Couture product showcased his evolved skill set by surprisingly wrestling with Miocic, clobbering him with a flurry of punches throughout the first round. Miraculously, the champion survived the beating and even popped the challenger with his own punch at the start of round two, but then foolishly charged in and was subsequently knocked out with a counter right, making Ngannou the new UFC Heavyweight Champion.
Miocic Back on Saturday Night
The world wouldn’t hear from Miocic again until rumblings of a supposed comeback fight against newly-minted champion Jon Jones surfaced more than two years later. Those rumblings gave way to an official fight announcement, with the former champion being slated to clash with Jones at UFC 295 in 2023, but that fight wound up falling through when Jones suffered a pectoral injury and was sidelined for more than a year.
Now, almost four years since he last fought in the Octagon, Miocic will look to assert his place on the heavyweight throne for a third time with a victory over the consensus best mixed martial artist in history, Jones. Although he is still viewed as the underdog like he has been so many times before, Miocic still looks as hungry as he was back in 2016 when he won the heavyweight championship for the very first time. An upset may seem unlikely, but as he has proven in the past on several occasions, the veteran firefighter isn’t afraid to step up and take on the smoke.
