Crazy
UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier has had enough of Stipe Miocic. Miocic has been lobbying hard for a rematch with Cormier lately, and DC has been firm in his denials. During an appearance on “The MMA Hour” this week, Cormier said that he thinks Miocic needs to take a fight and earn another shot at the title.
“I don’t want to sit here and talk bad about Stipe because I like Stipe,” Cormier told host Luke Thomas. “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.’”
Cormier is using his personal experience of losing to Jon Jones and then quickly taking other fights so that he could earn another crack at the championship.
“I didn’t just sit and wait,” he said. “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?”
Cormier’s final advice for Miocic? Just fight.
“Just go beat somebody up, then you can’t ignore it.”
Bloodsport
Frank Mir hasn’t seen much success inside the cage lately. Rather than just fade into retirement, Mir has opted to reinvent himself as a professional wrestler. He will make his pro-wrestling debut at Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport event set to take place in New Jersey on the same weekend as Wrestlemania 35. Mir thinks his fighting experience along with the scripted nature of pro-wrestling can open some new doors for him.
“In the future, I’d like to break more into acting and stuff,” Mir told MMAFighting. “I think that pro wrestling is a great springboard, really. You see a lot of guys coming from that world. In a lot of ways, it’s like live theater. Guys going out there and performing and having to act on the fly and be their own stuntmen at the same time. So, I’ve always had a great admiration and respect for the guys that do it.”
Mir said he plans to train with former UFC fighter turned pro-wrestler Tom Lawlor. He also indicated that he may not be fully committed to the new venture, but is willing to try it out.
“I don’t want to make any judgment, like how am I gonna follow this? What if I don’t like it? I don’t know. I’ve never really been a part of it on that side of it. That’s why I think jumping off at this level of a show and testing the waters before I start.”
If Mir takes to it and enjoys it, one of his biggest rivals, Brock Lesnar, is currently sitting in WWE waiting for that rubber match.
Wednesday Notebook
–Israel Adesanya told “The MMA Hour” that he thinks Robert Whittaker should be stripped of his UFC middleweight championship. He thinks he should fight Kelvin Gastelum to declare a new champion.
-Chris Weidman doesn’t feel that Israel Adesanya has been tested at the top level yet, tweeting “He wouldn’t have much of a chance against me. Has he fought a top 5 guy yet? A jitsu guy or top wrestler?”
-Robert Whittaker’s manager Titus Day told ESPN.com that they are hoping for a June return following hernia surgery.
-John Lineker vs. Cory Sandhagen has been booked for UFC Miami on April 27.
In case you missed it
–NEW PODCAST: MMATorch Today with David McGrath talking UFC 234, Bellator double-header, and more
–ROUNDTABLE: How should UFC handle the middleweight title picture?
Leave a Reply