Issue 121

November 2014

Gareth A Davies, MMA and Boxing Correspondent for The Daily Telegraph, London, UK, talks to Stipe Miocic about Croatian inspiration.

Found myself in conversation with Stipe Miocic recently. I suddenly realized just how far he has come in such a short space of time, and that I could genuinely be speaking to the future UFC heavyweight champion. 

A win over Junior Dos Santos next, and he’ll likely be facing the victor in the contest between incumbent champion Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum as Mexico City gets the big one in November. 

As those who have talked with six-foot-four Stipe will know, the huge heavyweight, ranked number six in the official UFC rankings at least, and of Croatian descent, is not really a talker at all. He’s a man of action. But the former Golden Gloves boxing champion and NCAA Division I wrestler does have a nice line in self-deprecating wit.

Perhaps that comes from his lineage. Or from the couple of days, he spends diving into fire engines in his working week at home in Independence, Ohio. When we parlayed, he was in Europe, on his first visit to Croatia. 

His father lives in Austria, but is Croatian. “I’ve wanted to come here for so long, I just haven’t had the chance. All I needed was a chance to do it. Coming to Croatia hasn’t changed me as a person, but it’s certainly made me love the country even more. I’ve heard all these great stories about it and now I get the chance to see it all for myself. That’s a great feeling.”

Then the Miocic self-mockery. “I’ve got a big head and don’t see many people with my sized heads. But the people here are awesome and they’re friendly and they make me feel at home.

“My father moved over to Cleveland when he was about 21 and had a beautiful child, which was me. He went to Austria because he missed being in Europe and he had a girlfriend so came back for her. He worked as a manager in a maintenance company and then did pretty much the same thing back in Austria. 

“They’d tell me how beautiful the country was and how there was so much to do. They’d always talk about Croatia and I got to know a lot of the history without ever being there.”

In the last couple of years – minus the blip of defeat to Stefan Struve in 2012 – Miocic has put his giant, athletic genes to good use. He was pretty decent, let’s not forget, at baseball and football, and worked hard at all of them. 

“Baseball was awesome. 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 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.”

Everybody has dreams, but he reckons he wouldn’t ever have “made it” professionally. “I just played in high school. I played baseball as far as college. I tried to get picked up but nothing ever came of it. There were a lot of the guys who were six-five and 240lb. And these guys hit it further than I could. I was just happy to hit the ball. 

“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.”

Next, I’d like to see Miocic pick up a few tips from kicboxing and MMA legend Mirko ‘Cro Cop’. “I got to meet Mirko during my time out here. I visited his house and his gym. He’s a big hero of mine. I looked up to him when I was starting out.”

Indeed, the first MMA fight Miocic ever watched was Cro Cop against Igor Vovchanchyn in Pride. “It’s awesome that he’s back fighting again and looking good,” he said of his hero, now fighting in Glory kickboxing. “I’m so pleased to see that. He’s a monster, man. He makes me drive myself. I haven’t looked to train with him, but if something came up, it would be great. I’d love to.”

Gone, but not forgotten

Talking with Dana White recently, at an art exhibition of Justin Bua’s, there hung behind us a picture of Chael Sonnen and the realization of just how tough it must be sometimes when you have to make decisions that are damaging to the business, but sometimes have to be taken. 

It was he, the UFC promoter revealed, who had to take the decision to cut Chael Sonnen loose from the developing career he had as a star presenter on the UFC’s Fox broadcasts. 

Sonnen had become one of the standout television analysts with a genuine flair for live TV, and the rare quality of both attracting and repelling fans in equal measure. That magnetism has always worked in fight sports. 

I just wonder if a full television confession down the line from the self-styled ‘American Gangster’ might just get him back into the fold. It really would not surprise me at all.