VALLEY VIEW, Ohio -- There is something about being from Cleveland and Clevelanders in general that UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic loves representing.
Euclid-born and a product of Eastlake North High School, Miocic is fiercely proud of his Cleveland roots and brings that with him to work every day, whether it is for a title defense or as a firefighter/paramedic for the Northeast Ohio suburbs of Oakwood Village and Valley View.
“I love Cleveland, and they’re awesome,” Miocic said of Clevelanders. “What a great city.”
Be it is a pure work ethic that was instilled in him from his mother, Kathy, to the scrappy nature of the Cleveland’s sports teams, Miocic embraces the mindset of always giving maximum effort, whether he is on the clock for the UFC or on shift at the fire house.
“Just hard work,” Miocic said. “It’s that fighting spirit, honestly. No joke. My whole life, I learned from my parents, especially my mom and my grandmother. They always worked hard. They fought for what they wanted and they got it.
“That rubbed off on me, and I was (saying) earlier, my mom never stops. I think I have a busy schedule, and she makes me tired. If she’s not at work, she’s at the summer home doing something, and it’s never ending. It’s just having that mentality of never stopping, just trying to make yourself better and wanting more.
“You’ve got to go forward, and I learned a lot of that from my mom because she’s got that spirit inside of her and she just never stops. If I get 20 percent of what she does, I’m happy with myself.”
Since Miocic won the UFC heavyweight championship with a first-round knockout of Fabricio Werdum in the main event of UFC 198 in Curitiba, Brazil, in May of 2016, he has fielded plenty of questions about his future as a firefighter.
And to this day, Miocic reports to the fire station for his shifts, which he continued to the day before he left for Las Vegas for his latest defense, which comes against light-heavyweight titlist Daniel Cormier in the main bout of UFC 226, the featured event of International Fight Week, at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday night.
“Just being grateful and blessed,” Miocic said. “One day, it’s all not going to be here. It’s great and everybody’s like, ‘Oh, my God. Yay!’ Next day, it’s not here. Having that mentality, that fighting spirit of waking up every day and knowing what you’ve got to do, you’ve always got to do it, no matter how tired you are.”
Following the fight against Cormier, Miocic plans on passing along his love of Cleveland and that pure work ethic to his daughter, who is due to come into the world on August 1.
“Everything’s the same, but my mentality my whole life and in everything I do is just ‘Never stop working,’” Miocic said.
“It’s always working hard. It’s always about pushing forward and making yourself better, and I just want to showcase to my daughter and if we have a son also or another daughter, however many kids we have, is just to show her right now, no matter what you do in life, just work hard like your dad did.
“’I work my butt off. I want you just to work hard. Nothing’s ever given. It’s all earned. Respect what you have and be grateful.’”
