Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier fought in the summers of 2018 and 2019, and according to the latter, it that’s likely going to be the case in 2020 too.

Cormier discusses timeline for rubber match with Miocic

Miocic and Cormier battled for the first time at UFC 226 in July, 2018, and “DC” ended the heavyweight’s reign as champ via first round, knockout. Miocic waited out for an opportunity to avenge that loss, and this past August at UFC 241, he finished Cormier in round four.

Well, since both men hold a win over each other, the UFC is hoping to book a rubber match. Cormier has said that’s the only fight that will get him back in the cage, and that he’ll retire after it takes place.

Recently the decorated fighter spoke with MMA Junkie, and while discussing a timeline for the trilogy fight, Cormier said this:

“There’s no time for us to fight until maybe June,” Cormier said. “The way the UFC quarterly schedule is looking, the UFC essentially, with them announcing Tony (Ferguson) and Khabib (Nurmagomedov) for April, there’s really no time. We’re going to be waiting a little bit.”

“It’s tricky,” Cormier said. “I would like it to happen sooner than later, that’s all I would like to say. I feel like the more time I get away from last year’s back surgery, the better I feel, and I’m starting to really feel like myself now. The further I get away from this surgery, the better I’ll be. They told me when I did it, after about a year is when it would really start to feel everything was back in order and I’m starting to feel that now.”

So, Cormier’s probably on point here. Miocic is recovering from an eye injury, and the UFC’s already booked some big fights for Q1 and Q2. Plus, Miocic – Cormier III would certainly be a nice fight for the UFC’s International Fight Week in July.

Cormier believes trilogy fight has to happen

While Miocic hasn’t sounded as keen about fighting Cormier again, clearly the latter hasn’t changed his tune. During the aforementioned interview the former champ-champ said this:

“I think Stipe and I have a fantastic rivalry,” Cormier said. “I won the first fight in tremendous fashion, he won the second fight in tremendous fashion. I feel like we’ve had the first two acts of a three-act drama and we have to do the trilogy fight and eventually we’re going to do that.”

Here’s hoping that’s the case. Can Cormier walk away from the game with another, heavyweight belt around his waist?

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