Curtis Blaydes Says Daniel Cormier Needs to Check His “Ego”, in Order to Beat Stipe Miocic Again

Daniel Cormier has said he plans to fight Stipe Miocic one more time before he hangs up the gloves, and Curtis Blaydes believes “DC” could reclaim the UFC’s heavyweight title, provided he checks his ego…

Blaydes weighs-in on Miocic – Cormier III

As this is being written, a third fight between Miocic and Cormier hasn’t been signed. But, the expectation is that it will happen. Cormier ended Miocic’s first reign as champion at UFC 226 in July, 2018, and this past August at UFC 241, Miocic avenged that loss by taking Cormier out in round four.

More recently, Cormier has said that he”ll return for one more bout, against Miocic. Although the champ has sounded less interested in a rubber match, Dana White has said the UFC wants to book that rematch.

Well, recently Blaydes spoke with MMA Fighting, and while discussing how he thinks Miocic – Cormier III would play out, the powerful wrestler said this:

“I’ll go with Stipe [to win] again,” Blaydes said. “Especially after both got a win under their belts, if they do fight again, the rounds are going to be a lot more explosive. They’ve both seen what the other one has and they won’t be as tentative. I still think Stipe’s the better striker and he definitely has the reach advantage.

“It all depends if DC goes in there with the mindset just to wrestle, he could probably win, but I think he has an ego. He wants to strike with Stipe and that will be his downfall. I would definitely love to see that happen [with me against Stipe] but right now I’m focused on JDS and we’ll go from there.”

It’s an interesting point. Although Miocic is a former NCAA Divion 1 wrestler, there’s likely a lot of people who would argue that Cormier’s wrestling game is on a higher level. That said, Cormier does have very heavy hands, particularly at heavyweight, and he was getting the better of Miocic during the opening rounds of their rematch.

But, considering how the rematch played out in the end, maybe we will see Cormier turn to his wrestling in the third fight?

Blaydes’ next fight

Blaydes continues to work his way towards a title shot, thanks to recent wins over Justin Willis and Shamil Abdurakhimov, which followed his quick, stoppage loss to Francis Ngannou last November. Up next, as Blaydes noted, he’ll battle former champ Junior dos Santos at UFC Raleigh, January 25th.