CLEVELAND -- Cleveland native Stipe Miocic successfully defended the UFC heavyweight championship for a record third consecutive time with a dominant unanimous-decision victory over Francis Ngannou in the main event of UFC 220 at TD Garden in Boston Saturday night.
And less than an hour after finishing the fight with Ngannou, Miocic was asked what the future held in terms of whom his next opponent would be.
“I just want to go home, enjoy myself,” Miocic said. “I’m like an onion. You’ve got to peel me back one layer at a time, but I’m just going to go home, relax and just enjoy myself, enjoy my wife. She’s put up with a lot from me over the last couple weeks. I’m like a raging hormonal teenager during fight camp, so it’s her time to shine.”
Although Miocic did not want to talk about future opponents, UFC president Dana White said on the Fox Sports 1 post-fight show that he is interested in a super-fight between the heavyweight champion and light-heavyweight titleholder Daniel Cormier in the near future.
Here is a look at three potential contenders for Miocic.
Cain Velasquez (6-foot-1, 240-pound former heavyweight champion)
Velasquez has twice been to the top of the mountain in the heavyweight division, first winning the UFC title with a first-round knockout of Brock Lesnar on October 23, 2010.
The first time around, Velasquez never successfully defended the UFC championship, as he was knocked out just 64 seconds into the first round against Junior dos Santos at UFC on Fox: Velasquez vs. Dos Santos 13 months after originally winning the belt.
It would be another 13 months before Velasquez would get a shot at the championship, but he made good, outpointing dos Santos on the way to a unanimous-decision victory.
Velasquez would twice defend the heavyweight championship before being submitted with a guillotine choke by Fabricio Werdum on June 13, 2015.
Velasquez has fought just once since his last defeat, and has undergone surgery to repair rotator cuff issues, as well as a procedure to fix a torn meniscus in his right knee.
Velasquez (14-2-0, 12-2-0 UFC) tried to get reinstated in time for fight in at UFC 207 in December of 2016, but the Nevada State Athletic Commission denied him the chance to compete because of bone spurs in his back.
Despite only recently resuming training, Velasquez tweeted following Miocic’s victory over Ngannou that he is ready to regain the UFC heavyweight championship.
Cormier (5-foot-11, 205-pound light-heavyweight champion)
Cormier is 20-1-0 with one no-contest in nine years as a mixed martial artist and has a history as a heavyweight fighter in the early days of his professional career.
Cormier won the heavyweight championship in multiple organizations, including XMMA in just his third professional bout, and then, in King of the Cage before going on to claim the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grind Prix championship in 2012.
In his third UFC fight, Cormier moved to light-heavyweight and has remained there since then, going on to win the UFC championship, which he has successfully defended twice and retained after a loss to Jon Jones was moved to a no-contest when Jones failed a post-fight test for steroids.
Alexander Gustafsson (6-foot-5, 205-pound light-heavyweight contender)
Gustafsson burst onto the scene with a 15-1 start to his career before dropping a bout to Jones via unanimous decision in September of 2013, but he earned Fight of the Night honors for his efforts against the athletically-gifted champion.
After back-to-back losses in 2015, Gustafsson has won his last two fights, outpointing Jan Blachowicz on the way to a unanimous-decision victory, and then, knocking out former top contender Glover Teixeira in the fifth round of their UFC Fight Night main event back on May 28, 2017.
Considered a big light-heavyweight, Gustafsson is currently recovering from shoulder surgery and is not expected back until later in 2018.
