The UFC announced on Friday that a Champion vs. Champion bout has been signed with heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic set to defend his title against reigning light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier this July.
The heavyweight championship fight will headline UFC 226 on Saturday, July 7th in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena during International Fight Week.
The two champions will also serve as coaches for the upcoming season of âThe Ultimate Fighterâ, which begins shooting imminently.
The fight was discussed by UFC president Dana White last weekend following both menâs victories at UFC 220 in Boston. However, Cormierâs initial reaction was lukewarm to the idea of returning to heavyweight and stepping ahead of teammate Cain Velasquez.
Miocic just defended the heavyweight title for a record-setting third time with a decision victory Francis Ngannou and is unbeaten dating back to December 2014, where he dropped a decision to former champion Junior dos Santos, a loss he has since avenged as champion.
The 38-year old Cormier went unbeaten as a heavyweight before the move down in weight. This included wins over Antonio Silva and Josh Barnett in the Strikeforce organization and continuing his winning streak within the UFCâs heavyweight ranks with victories over Frank Mir and Roy Nelson. He came down to the light heavyweight division in 2014. His only career losses have come at the hands of Jon Jones, the second loss was later changed to a no contest after Jones failed an in-competition drug test prior to their UFC 214 bout last July.
Miocic vs Cormier is a pretty exciting prospect. Stipe being the longest reigning heavyweight champion matching up against undefeated Heavyweight DC. I think this is an important fight for Daniel to cement his individual legacy to the eyes of the casual MMA audience. When I look at the comments for posts on Facebook and Twitter concerning DC the only thing that gets brought up are his losses to Jon Jones, which is pretty disrespectful the the legacy of a fantastic fighter.
If Miocic/Cormier, Cyborg/Nunes and DJ/TJ all end up on the same card, I think weâre looking at (on paper) the greatest card of all time.
Additionally, Justin Gaethje vs Dustin Porier is a fantastic fight. I see Porier winning, but it definitely has FOTY Potential.
These are two of my favorite fighters! Itâs like Hogan/Warrior at wrestlemania 6. I favor Stipe due to age and size. If Cormier loses I see him retiring. He would still be light heavyweight champion after a loss. He hated still being champion after losing to Jones. He couldnât go through that again.
Seems they want a champion vs champion theme with cyborg/nunes and Dillishaw/Johnson.
On paper, sounds great but the July 4th ufc has been plagued the last few years. Fights constantly fall through before that show.
See, I think this is the perfect time to do the HW Vs LHW superfight, because there really is nothing to hold up. Stipe has cleared out the top 5 at heavyweight, so it will take at least another big win for guys like Werdum, Cain, Overeem and Volkov to work out a number one contender, and at LHW the only contender is Alexander Gustaffson, who is currently 2-2 in his last 4 fights and recovering from injury. By the time Stipe vs DC is over, hopefully theyâll be logical directions to go in for both champs.