A man who has always been so close to being called the greatest light heavyweight of all time now gets a shot to do so at heavyweight. On July 7 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, light-heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier will face Stipe Miocic for the UFC heavyweight title.
After successfully defending the UFC light-heavyweight championship against Volkan Oezdemir, Daniel Cormier looks to further etch his name into the list of UFC legends. He aims to do so by taking on the man with the most heavyweight title defenses in UFC, Stipe Miocic .
Formerly an Olympic wrestler, Cormier made his transition to MMA in 2009 and has built a solid career for himself since then. This Saturday the Louisiana native makes the walk for what is quite literally the biggest superfight in UFC history.
On the run up to this fight, Cormier has taken out some lethal opponents such as Alexander Gustafsson, Volkan Oezdemir. He also managed the impressive feat of defeating Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson twice and retiring him.
Although his record is marred by a loss to Jon Jones as well as an eventual no-contest in their rematch, Cormier could still very well be the best fighter on the current UFC roster.
If everything goes to plan, on July 7 he could quite feasibly end up the second fighter to hold two UFC belts simultaneously. How does Cormier have to fight in order to win this cross division clash? He’ll have to follow these five keys in order to become the champ champ!
5. Keep emotions out of it
While Cormier is a bombastic fighter inside the cage, it’s been shown that if the man has one weakness, it’s his own emotions. After his first loss to Jon Jones, Cormier himself acknowledged that part of his downfall was due to his emotional state.
In the build-up to the fight he and Jon Jones engaged in a fair amount of trash talking, which for all intents and purposes, Jones got the better of.
Cormier went into his first fight with JBJ frustrated and all too eager to get the victory. Jones was able to use this and play Cormier into his hands, out-striking and even out-wrestling him over five rounds.
Even aside from his story with Jones, Cormier has faced heavy criticism from fans and other fighters like Gustafsson who don’t see him as the real champ.
Ever since his no-contest bout with Jones at UFC 214, DC has indeed seemed to be more mentally strong.
Without much effort he combated the barbs thrown at him by Oezdemir and in an interview with Conan O’Brien he stated his desire to break the curse of UFC fighters losing after a Conan appearance.
If DC is to walk away with the heavyweight championship he’ll need to disregard the comments of his detractors as well as those of his former foes.