Daniel Cormier criticizes Stipe Miocic for not taking another fight: ‘That’s crazy’

In July of 2018, Daniel Cormier ended the record-breaking UFC heavyweight title reign of Stipe Miocic, stealing the champ’s belt with a strafing of first-round punches.

Now more than six months later, Stipe Miocic still hasn’t returned to the cage, instead demanding an immediate rematch with the new champion.

Daniel Cormier, who defeated Derrick Lewis in November, is not impressed by that fact.

“This is crazy shit right here,” Cormier said on The MMA Hour on Monday (transcript via MMA Fighting). “Stipe hasn’t fought in so long that Jon Jones will have fought twice since he last got to the Octagon. When’s the last time that’s happened?

“Jones will have had two fights and at the rate that he’s fighting, maybe three by the time Stipe fights again if he waits and fights me in the summer. That’s crazy, because Jones doesn’t fight very often. That’s crazy.

“I just don’t like that I’ve fought again and he still hasn’t fought.”

Having lost to Jon Jones in the past, Daniel Cormier understands how it feels to come up short and desire a rematch. Yet he says he attempted to earn his rematch, rather than simply demanding it.

“I understand where he’s coming from because I’ve been there with Jones twice and I’m like, ‘God, I know I can beat him if I can just get another opportunity to do it. I know I can beat him.’ And it burns at you and it eats at you, especially the way that he lost the fight. I get it,” Cormier said. “But I don’t have to really owe anything. I’ve said that before, I’ve said he deserves it. I’ve said that. He deserves a rematch if I don’t get to fight Brock. I’ve always stood by that. But you can’t just go, ‘Well, you owe it to me.’ I don’t want to sit here and talk bad about Stipe because I like Stipe. I think he’s a good guy. He’s a fantastic father. He’s a pillar of the community. He’s a great fighter. I think he’s great. But you can’t sit there and say, ‘He owes me.’

“When I lost to Jones the first time, I thought, ‘Man, if I can just get another opportunity.’ I didn’t just sit and wait. I went right back to work at trying to re-earn the opportunity if they weren’t going to give it to me. I wasn’t the champion obviously, so the circumstances were different, but I right away scheduled a fight to try to get my way back to that fight and it’s almost like he hasn’t really taken that approach. That’s one of the things where I’m kind of like, what’s going on? Why hasn’t he fought yet still?”

Do you want to see a rematch between Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 2/14/2019.