CLEVELAND -- Former UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic wants his belt back.
Nearly five months after dropping the UFC championship to Daniel Cormier via a late first-round knockout in the main event of UFC 226 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, back in July, Miocic continues to angle for a rematch with the two-division titleholder.
“I’m the better fighter,” Miocic told WKYC.com in an exclusive interview at Strong Style MMA Gym in Independence. “Hands down, I’m the better fighter.”
Miocic felt he was winning for much of the first round in his fourth defense of the heavyweight championship, despite taking a thumb to the left eye on an attempted shove from Cormier early in the round.
However, out of a clinch, Cormier faked an uppercut, came over the top with a right-handed strike and floored the defending champion. With Miocic on his back, Cormier pounced and landed multiple strikes before the referee called a stop to the contest.
The loss brought to an end Miocic’s six-fight winning streak.
“That’s the fight game,” Miocic said. “Anything can happen. If it happens, it happens. Like I said, come back next fight and it’ll be a different fighter out there.”
Miocic is no stranger to getting a rematch against a competitor who has gotten the better of him.
Nearly three years after suffering a decision loss to Junior dos Santos in Phoenix in December of 2014, Miocic successfully defended the UFC heavyweight championship against the heavy-handed, hard-kicking Brazilian with a first-round knockout at UFC 211 in Dallas, Texas.
Should Miocic get his rematch against Cormier, he expects a similar outcome.
“It’ll be the same way,” Miocic said. “I’ll be a different fighter.”
The record-holder for the most consecutive successful defenses of the UFC heavyweight championship, Miocic is 18-3-0 in his professional career, including a 12-3 mark since joining the preeminent organization in mixed martial arts.
Originally, Miocic was in talks to main-event the UFC card at Madison Square Garden in New York City in early November, but was told Cormier was unavailable for a rematch. However, days after trying to get Miocic to take a fight against another opponent, the UFC booked a title match between Cormier and Derrick Lewis, who questioned why he got the championship bout.
With that in mind, should Miocic receive a call from the UFC and be granted a title rematch with Cormier, he will be more than ready to get his belt back.
“That wasn’t me out there,” Miocic said. “I was the better fighter. I was winning that fight. I’ll just leave it at that.
“I feel way better. Actually, I feel energized. I think I just needed some time off. Coming off the Ngannou fight to The Ultimate Fighter to a fight, because I was doing so many interviews, this and that, going somewhere, going this place, I just didn’t really have time to relax, and it’s the first time in a while where I get to relax and train when I want to.”