Issue 185

December 2019

Whether tackling blazes outside the Octagon, or bringing the heat inside it, Stipe Miocic is one of the most intriguing characters in the UFC. Having regained his heavyweight crown, rest assured, whatever he does next, it won't be ordinary.

It may come as a surprise that Stipe Miocic, once again the self-proclaimed "baddest man on the planet" after his victory over Daniel Cormier, is not to be found at home basking in the success of reclaiming the Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight crown. 'Two-time champ', 'most wins in a heavyweight reign in history', the 37-year-old with hands like shovels, could be bellowing from the rooftops in Cleveland, Ohio. Not a bit of it.

Instead, Miocic has been doing his thing, the thing he does best: being a father, husband, firefighter, teammate, Cleveland guy through and through. Blue collar, man of the people, minimal fuss. Ego left outside the door as he enters the room, fighting ego left in the cage. Old school. Fighter, sportsman and athlete; all about pride and honor. It is what makes Miocic special in this day and age, one of screaming on social media, and hysteria in hype and promotion. The elevation of the BMFs for maximum impact, and millions of rolled-up dollars headed to the coffers.

The Miocic story is a little different, more akin to the tale of the classical quiet lawman of those ancient Hollywood scripts. The silent hero, wrestling with outlaws and his own internal world. Getting the job done. Unflappable. Built for longevity; and across the bridge, any crisis imaginable. Always fighting fires, but happy to rescue a cat from a tree.

And, most likely, not fully appreciated until he has saddled up and left town for quiet pastures and retirement.

Apart from supporting his Cleveland teams in baseball and NFL, the man of the people has been out in New York since his triumph, visiting firefighters and families affected by 9/11, while planning philanthropic projects with his friend, the 23-year-old American football player Myles Garrett of the Cleveland Browns (who incidentally, at 6ft 4ins and 272lbs dwarfs even Miocic.) He has also, his close associates reveal, just undergone surgery on a torn retina sustained, they claim, by an eye poke in the last fight with Cormier. That will take time to heal.

And, what is more – in spite of UFC president Dana White hinting that the trilogy meeting with 'DC' is the most likely next destination for the heavyweight belt as this issue went to press – Miocic and his team have insisted to Fighters Only that given that they were forced to wait 13 months for the rematch with Cormier after Miocic was unceremoniously deposed in 2018, there are any number of other projects which can, and will present novel challenges for the newly-minted two-time on a horizon brimming with possibilities: like a fight with UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, or even a step into heavyweight boxing. And they are serious, too.

There is talk of the lure of a cross-code fight with the 'Gypsy King' – 6ft 9ins tall Tyson Fury, the British fighter from the Traveller community. Or perhaps a showdown with Deontay Wilder, the heavyweight boxing champion whom Stipe had the chance to size up when the pair appeared as opposing coaches for Dollar Bill (played by actor Kelly AuCoin) and Mafee (played by Dan Soder) as the two fictional characters went head-to-head in a 'fight' on an episode of Billions, the wildly popular hit TV series.

"There is no fear of Wilder," explains Stipe. Fascinating, that. What a fight that would be against the knockout merchant from boxing. Who knows? It may fit into White intimating time after time that ZUFFA boxing is coming. Or it may be organized under Miocic's agency.

Jim Walter, Miocic's manager, the president of Kaulig Sports and Entertainment, goes even further.

"I had the chance to have a close look at them (Miocic and Wilder) together. They match up well physically, and technically, Stipe may even be the better boxer," explained Walter, one of Miocic's closest associates.

That is not beyond the bounds of possibility given that Miocic was a Golden Gloves state champion, and that Wilder is one of the most unorthodox – albeit very dangerous – heavyweight boxers that the noble art has seen in a long time.

But even beyond that, Miocic returned triumphant from the battle of Los Angeles on August 17 against Cormier after retaining his crown, to 'family'. Family in the true sense, and you can peel away the layers with Stipe: the bosom of his family in Cleveland. To his wife Ryan and daughter Meelah, now 14 months old, born just days after that first fight with Cormier; to Miocic's Strong Style gym and team-mates in nearby Independence, Ohio. A tight-knit crew they are indeed. Deep friendships and trust, he explains. To Valley View Fire Station, where he works three shifts a week, even while he is in training camp for fights. Where he is just treated as one of the guys, where he is teased mercilessly, and loved for being a 'normal dude'.

That is Miocic through and through, happier to tell people he is a firefighter than a UFC fighter.

All in all, Miocic is not your typical heavyweight champion, nor indeed a typical fighter. Since July 2018, when Cormier knocked out Miocic, the desire to put the record straight burnt inside him, scorched away at the warrior in his soul.

"I just know I'm a better fighter than he is," Miocic had told us all in the build-up to the second fight with Cormier in Anaheim, at UFC 241. "I'm just gonna go out there, beat his ass and get my belt back. It's not even about the belt. It's about the principle."

Oh, and how he did. If Cormier won the first encounter by walking into an exchange and unleashing a powerful hook (after Miocic had been eye-poked, of course), finishing the fight and shocking us all that night in Las Vegas, Miocic dismantled the fighter and broadcaster in the second coming, leaving no doubt in the debate about technique, longevity in a championship contest, and most importantly, the use of fighting IQ to make adjustments in the heat of the battle.

The victory, explained Marcus Marinelli, Stipe's long-term coach (and even longer-term friend) "was huge". He, too, is Cleveland, through and through.

Fifteen years together, they have had, since Stipe walked into the gym wanting wrestling practice as Marinelli was preparing Dan Bobish for a heavyweight tournament at UFC 14.

"The victory over Cormier was a big team effort. We’d been training for that fight from the get-go, before it even got made, because that was the only fight Stipe wanted," explained Marinelli to Fighters Only.

"In fact, it was what the whole team wanted. We trained for quite a while. We chased up a couple of things. It wasn’t just the belt. I know DC is a great fighter but I thought Stipe was the better fighter. And so did Stipe. We didn’t feel the first fight was a true indication of who they are as fighters.”

The fascinating thing, of course, was that Miocic went through the same issues in the second fight, fought through a tunnel of difficulty in the first three rounds, and came out the other end knocking bricks out of the stomach wall of 'DC'. Left to the body. Thump. And again. And again. Left. It's working, it's effective, his fight brain told him. Thump. Left. Left and up. Twist it in there. Boom. DC was slowing, and Miocic was now firing his hooks brilliantly, finding shapes, rotating his hips, dipping his shoulder from the left on an angle, all with a vicious relish. Again. And again, until Cormier's posture crumbled, until he bustled backward, broken. The final assault was a thrash of punches knocking through the hole the left hands had built. The wall was broken. Oh, how it gave Miocic great satisfaction.

“We had a lot of techniques that we practiced," explained Marinelli, whom Miocic defers to in explaining the strategy. "We had a whole system set up. Stipe got out there and got into a fight. Both of them did. As much as I don’t like to see that happen as a coach, people saw how he handled that, and his ability to make adjustments. It wasn’t your textbook performance, but it was a hell of a performance.”

“Stipe got into a war where it became man against man. He made it through. We woke him up between the third and fourth. It wasn’t a technical thing, we just needed to get him back in a place where he could make those decisions. He got his movement back and that opened up the door for everything.”

Miocic was a different man, the second time they fought. This time he was a father.

"It's all a little different now I am a father," he explained. "I want to leave a legacy for my daughter to be proud of me, for her to know that you can be knocked down and you can get back up. I want to be the best role model, and it means everything to me. I want her to know that you can do it, you can push through adversity and that hard work pays off."

"Stipe is a very humble man, a blue-collar firefighter," explained Walter, talking of his charge. "He is interested in honor in the sport and now that he has Meelah, his daughter, he has become an even stronger person. It's amazing how quickly you go from being the king of the division, the baddest man on the planet, after two-and-a-half years of cleaning up the division to having to wait 13 months to challenge for the belt again. That was bullshit. He carried the torch for the UFC for two-and-a-half years and he had to wait 13 months for the rematch. He waited a long time to set the record straight. Now the UFC are pushing the DC trilogy.

"Never say never in this crazy sport with the DC trilogy fight happening," Walter continued. "But it is all about growth and challenges for Stipe, now. Stipe will fight anyway, and anyone we put in front of him. But we have nothing left to prove against Cormier. Jon Jones is out there, the heavyweight boxing challenges are out there, he has enough money, and he doesn't need to fight again."

Walter, who looks after both Miocic and Garrett, explained.

"Stipe has been working towards becoming a full-time firefighter and also starting work on philanthropic efforts for example with the National Firefighter Foundation which he visited in New York – including a lot of the firefighters from 9/11. He's making efforts to give the victims and the fallen victims support. He is super passionate about it. Then with Myles Garrett, they are working together to give back. It's fascinating, Myles likes boxing and basketball ahead of American Football, and he and Stipe train together."

One of the projects they intend to work on together involves Water Aid in Africa, where women and children are often at risk due to their having to travel miles to collect water where villages do not have a piped supply.

That social duty sits comfortably on Miocic's broad shoulders. Sport is simply the way he expresses himself, challenges himself, but it does not wholly define him. Miocic remains philosophical about the role he has chosen, as a life-saver, as opposed to the other part he plays, which involves being punched and kneed in the head, or elbowed or kicked in the face. Fatal injuries, or fate, intertwine between the two.

"Sometimes it's fate," explains the heavyweight MMA king. "I heard a story about some kid, 15 or 16 years old, who was driving his buddy somewhere. He was kind of sketchy about it and he got out and the kid shot him three times, point blank with a shotgun. You think that kid's got to be dead. The kid survived. You just never know. I've heard a story about a person hitting their head lightly on the windshield and she had a brain aneurysm. They're both intense but they're both 180s. I walk out and have got some big-ass dude trying to beat my ass, but then I go to the fire station and have got four or five guys just busting my balls belittling me and making me feel like crap. Which I love. It's like a big playground for us. We know we've got a job to do but in between that we have fun."

"I love fighting, but people's lives matter," Miocic continued. "One time I was by myself. That was the first time I'd ever had anyone go full arrest on me. It was pretty intense. It was actually my best friend back in the squad. We checked her out and she had chest pain. We were going to take her to hospital and I said fine and was talking to her and 'boom', she went out. I was like, 'Oh my God'. I put on patches and made sure she was OK. I looked at her blood pressure and I (de-fib) shocked her. All of a sudden she was moaning and she was fine."

Miocic loves this work, and we – observers and fans – ought to love the big man for what he chooses to do when not a prizefighter.

"I work too hard to give it up,” he reasoned. “That's why I won't give up firefighting. I took a couple of years in my life just to do that. I've given almost a decade to this sport, why would I give this up, either?"

It both explains his raison d'être and the peace inside the man's ego. The ego stays on the sports field, inside the Octagon, locked within the cage. Then he gets the opportunity to return to 'normality' – if we can call dealing with life and death situations normal in any way

Sport is a release. Always has been. Growing up, he played baseball. He was talented, too. He wrestled, boxed, played American Football. It's hard to imagine a small version of the man mountain Miocic. The hands like shovels. The huge legs and arms. It was not always so, though.

"In eighth grade (13/14) I was a shorter kid. I probably grew seven or eight inches in one year. I walked into high school at 6'1", he recalled. "I was short and skinny at 13 but then had this growth spurt. My dad is only 5'7" or 5'8". My grandfather was like 6'1" and I've got cousins who are tall. We have big men in our family but I'm the biggest. Croatians are either short and stocky or tall. There are a lot of big boys in Croatia.

"I was good at a few sports – baseball and American football – and just worked hard at all of them,” he continued. “That has always been my aim – to work as hard as possible.”

“Baseball was awesome,” he added. “There was such a good camaraderie. It was almost like fighting – you all pulled together to get a victory and it felt so good at the end when you'd achieved what you'd set out to achieve. There was a real brotherhood element to it. Football was awesome, too. You got to hit people in that. I was a linebacker and fullback. I got to the nationals in wrestling and that was fun. It helped me pay for school, which was great. I went there on a scholarship to wrestle and play baseball."

That matter-of-factness with sport, and his size and toughness, brought Miocic to the most challenging stage. And there is little doubt that the loss to Cormier, the manner of it, hurt his fighting pride in the summer of 2018.

“It’s tough being the best champion ever and then something like that happening," Marinelli explained to Fighters Only. "There was a grieving process. At the same time he had his daughter born, which far outweighs anything else. Inside it hurt losing like that, but he was able to see there was a lot good things happening in his life at the same time. He kept focused on that and kept a low profile. Being a good father, he puts a lot of energy into that. But don’t think one day went by that he didn’t want that fight back.”

“I would never call it a depression,” Marinelli continued. “We didn’t get any sport psychologist, but we rallied around him. But then at some point with Stipe, grieving was also anger. He was angry. He wanted that fight back. He’s not the kind of guy you want angry because he’s a winner. Going into this last fight, I had no doubt he would win one way or another. Because of who he is as a person. His mindset is almost unparalleled. It was deep in him that he was not going to lose."

That attitude breeds victory. The rematch was at the forefront of Miocic's mind almost every day. There was only one fight that mattered to him. He was not interested in anyone else. For a couple of reasons: proving who the better fighter was and getting the belt back to where he believed it belonged.

Miocic had been fatigued going into the first Cormier fight, he and his team believe. Right after the Francis Ngannou fight, there was The Ultimate Fighter. Then it was straight into camp for Cormier.

"I personally think he was mentally a little tired," recalled Marinelli. "We rejuvenated his mind. He’s a warrior, so he can push through anything physically, but his mind was fresh this time around. Everything we did was fresh. That time off helped. I don’t care what anyone says about ring rust. He was aching to get back in there.”

“I’ve been in this for a long time,” Marinelli continued. “I started with shootfighting before I even opened my gym and that was over 20 years ago. I had someone at UFC 14 [Dan Bobish]. We build everyone from scratch. We prefer it that way. It’s not just about victories, but about our team and family. It’s about staying close and working together.

“You make yourself a better person through a tough process,” Marinelli added. “This is about growing as a person too. This process takes a lot out of you and puts a lot into you as well. You can be a better person every day. If you’re a worse person but a better fighter, I think that’s a loss. People spiral out of control. At some point they get out of the sport or they find a way to be a better person. You see that a lot. They can come back mentally renewed. Stipe is my friend and it’s everything to me to see him grow. Whenever he’s done fighting, we’ll still be best friends. We helped each other become better people and accomplished greatness together.”

Will he fight Jon Jones? Or Cormier?

"I'll fight whoever they put in front of me," said Stipe. Marinelli is a little different.

“Well, I get excited for any fight. I look at it that way. That decision is Stipe’s. I’ll put in my two cents. When it’s time for that I’ll see where he is mentally. It’s what’s best for him. Whatever he decides, we’ll discuss. But he decides.”

The future, for Miocic, will involve an "ordinary life", he explains, no doubt as firefighter and paramedic, and involved with philanthropic work with his sporting buddy Garrett.

“He’s not the guy who will fight forever," explained Marinelli to Fighters Only. "He has goals he wants to accomplish and when he’s done those, that may be it. That’s his choice and I’ll always honor and respect it. But Stipe is 'The Man' and that last performance cemented that. I have a lot of respect for Fedor Emelianenko, but I believe Stipe is the best heavyweight ever. It’ll be a long long time before you see someone do what Stipe has done, I’ll tell you that.”

For Miocic himself, it is about growth. And success.

"I don't want fame. I never want to lose but it made me a better fighter. The heavyweight division has a lot of big men with small gloves. One wrong move or wrong step and you can get caught. It happens. It's life. Any fight is a risk."

But a risk clearly worth taking for arguably the greatest, most complete heavyweight ever seen in MMA.