UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic is going to wait to accept a bout offer from Daniel Cormier.
On Monday, Cormier urged Miocic to “sign the contract”, and now the champ responded.
“I didn’t know (Cormier) was calling his shots,” Miocic told ESPN. “Wow, I mean. … I can’t really do anything because, again, my state is shut down for another month. Who knows how long after that? … Every gym shut down. I literally can’t train. How am I going to take another fight? I don’t understand what he’s (talking about).
“Listen, I’ll fight him. I never said I’m ducking him or leaving or running or trying to fight someone else, like he did. I just can’t train, dude. I’ll fight you. Let me make sure I get a full camp, dude. I’m down.”
Miocic estimates a fall 2020 return, citing his need for a 10 to 12-week training camp to prepare.
“Next in line right now, we’ve got Cormier waiting for Stipe to come back,” White said when talking about the implications of Francis Ngannou vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik on May 9. “We’ll see.
“I saw a quote from Stipe recently where Stipe said, ‘There’s bigger things going on in the world right now. Fighting will be there forever.’ That’s not true. Fighting will not be there forever. I mean, when you’re a professional athlete, your window of opportunity is very, very small. Hopefully we can get Stipe back in there soon with Cormier and get the heavyweight division rolling.”
