Fight Study 74 – UFC 252: Eye Pokes III (transcript) (Patreon)

UFC 252 came to a close. So did the Stipe Miocic vs. Daniel Cormier trilogy where Stipe Miocic became the consensus greatest UFC heavyweight champion ever. He's beaten former title challenger Gabriel Gonzaga, former interim title challenger Mark Hunt, former champ Andrei Arlovski, former champ Fabricio Werdum, former UFC title challenger, K1 champion, Strikeforce champion, and Dream champion Alistair Overeem, former champ Junior dos Santos, Francis Ngannou, and former two-division champion Daniel Cormier. Miocic has won the heavyweight title twice and defended it four times. If you look at some of the champions his opponents have beaten, his record is even more impressive.

But before we get into the main event, let's talk about the event itself, which was pretty fun and much needed after a week of not only dealing with COVID-19 but the explosion of the Qanon virus. Also, a lot of shakeup in politics, which has left many of us with headaches. As problematic as the UFC can be, which we've pointed out ad nauseam, it's actually still a welcome escape from reality. UFC is a sport, it's contained, and though we're invested, and it does affect the lives of fighters, it has very low stakes as far as our own lives. To put it another way, if the worst thing going on in the world is the UFC, the world is doing okay. If the thing you're complaining about most is the UFC, you need to prioritize.

One Southpaw listener in our chat, however, had a spot-on observation after watching hundreds of UFC events, "Joe Rogan has gotten stupider." Throughout the event, you had Dominic Cruz constantly correcting Rogan on things he was describing or calling wrong. Not to be malicious, but rather, I think that's just Cruz's way. Even in how Cruz fights, he's calculated. Previously when the commentating was done by Rogan and Mike Goldberg, Rogan looked like the expert. But now with former fighters also in the booth, they all correct Rogan. But none as pointedly as Cruz. MMA is Rogan's wheelhouse, and he constantly fucks it up. So imagine how bad he fucks up things he knows little about. Yet on his show, he's Dana White, so he gets the final say.

Before the main event, we had Virna Jandiroba defeating Felice Herrig by armbar submission in the first round. It was systematic grappling. Takedown when Herrig was throwing punches, then step by step improving position until Jandiroba had mount. From there, Jandiroba took a speed armbar, otherwise known as a trigger armbar. Rather than trying to use a convoluted system to pry an arm free, you use speed to catch an arm when you feel it extend, much like a Venus flytrap. And why it's even called a catch is because it's not all about methodical submissions, sometimes you catch it in mid-motion. Jennifer Maia did similar from guard against Joanne Calderwood. In BJJ, it's frowned upon to use athleticism. But this is paid fighting with professional athletes, athleticism is the name of the game. So if you can do a lightning-quick armbar, go for it, especially if there is a skill gap on the ground.

We also saw Vinc Pichel beat UFC journeyman Jim Miller, mostly on the ground, which was surprising. But the most exciting thing about this fight was seeing kickboxing legend Pete 'Sugarfoot' Cunningham in Vinc Pichel's corner. If you're an MMA geek where learning more about combat sports makes you happy, look up some of Cunningham's fights. He comes from that era where there was a lot of back and forth between karate and boxing.

Former flyweight title challenger John Dodson lost to Merab Dvalishvili and has lost 6 out of his last 10. Dodson is competitive at bantamweight, but he's not a winning fighter. Bantamweight is also one of the most stacked divisions in the UFC. Having so many fights go to decision, and having a losing record, I could see the UFC cutting Dodson. What's disappointing is, Dodson is really good, but at 35, his title-challenging days in the UFC are most likely over.

In the other main card heavyweight fight, Jairzinho Rozenstruik defeated Junior dos Santos by TKO in the second round. Since this fight was in the UFC Apex Center in Las Vegas, the cage is much smaller than the usual octagon. That becomes even more evident for heavyweights. Dos Santos already has a habit of backing up to the fence. He backed up that much quicker in the smaller cage and ended up getting dropped by a right hook and finished with punches by Bigi Boy. This fight showed how the smaller cage plays a bigger role the bigger you are.

In the co-main event, we had Sean O'Malley vs. Marlon Vera. Vera beat O'Malley in the first round with ground and pound after the second freak foot/leg injury of O'Malley's short career. Both to the same leg. In fact, this is also the leg Hector Lombard ankle locked in the grappling event Quintet. The history regarding this injury for O'Malley stems back to a foot fracture that never healed and constantly gets reaggravated. Being a fellow bantamweight, you can't help but compare O'Malley to Dominick Cruz, who is also plagued by injuries. However, for Cruz, it all happened after he was a defending champion. This is happening much sooner for O'Malley. With how foot/ankle injuries work, once injured, the likelihood of re-injury is that much higher. The amount of tape O'Malley already had on his feet and ankles makes me wonder if both legs are injury-prone. If this were heavyweight, I'd say not a big deal, and he could make a comeback post-injury until he was 45. But being bantamweight, you hope this doesn't derail O'Malley's career before it even really starts.

Now let's talk about Stipe Miocic vs. Daniel Cormier. If you listened to, or watched, or read our preview for this fight, Paul nailed all the things that might happen in this third fight as far as strategic changes. Especially for Miocic. Much of that was from the observation that even though Miocic won the second fight, there were so many things he could have improved on. With Cormier, he did so many things well in defeat—other than not getting KO'ed, he was already fighting to the best of his ability. Even what Cormier said in the lead up to this fight was that he was the better fighter for all the rounds of their fight until the very last one. There's a lot of truth to that. So if you were already doing well, what do you improve? A few things. What about for Miocic? Lots of things.

With the fight going all five rounds, with so many factors involved and constant adaptations by both fighters, fight studies exist for contests like these. This is why, in our group chat, there were many questions about this fight from our listeners. Several wanted to know why Cormier didn't try harder for takedowns. Another asked why Miocic seemed to ease up on combination striking, especially to the body, out in open space in the later rounds. Karl, who's one of the initial five listeners we had for this podcast, had several questions. Why did Cormier hype up the wrestling so much for this fight when we only saw one takedown and very few attempts? Was this a decision by Cormier, or was Miocic preventing the wrestling? Did the clinches fatigue Cormier? How big of a factor was the eye poke? Cormier looked good in the exchanges, why didn't he fight more in open space and press the striking?

Hopefully, all these questions will get answered as I describe the details of this fight.

The first thing I noticed as soon as the fight started was the feints from Miocic. Miocic, as Paul mentioned in our preview, is a fighter who relies more on feints than he does on variety to keep his opponents guessing. In this fight, his feints were at 2x speed, especially his shoulder and head feints. If you watch Miocic's shoulders throughout the contest, they bob up and down almost as if he were dancing. Now in boxing, you'll see fighters walking to the ring dancing with their shoulders. In the ring, you might see them shadowbox and throw uppercuts. But their hands will only move slightly, all the action is in the shoulders, almost as if the shoulders are detached from the body, pumping up and down quickly. Most of us can't do it. Only people who've been boxing for a long time can develop that type of shoulder movement. I rarely see it in MMA, let alone in the heavyweight division, but Miocic has that type of loose shoulders. This is why his hooks and uppercuts are so powerful.

Now, what was the lesson in the second fight? Body shots. What was new in this fight was Miocic constantly feinting body shots, not just with his shoulders, but also with his head movement. To throw a body shot, you have to commit your weight to one side and then load your shoulder. Miocic used slips, head movement, and footwork to make it appear that he was setting up body shots. He was aware Cormier would try to counter him, and so he was going to confuse Cormier and draw out the response. Right away in round one, Miocic drew out Cormier's counter to the left hook to the body, which was an overhand right to Miocic's open side.

And when Cormier threw it, he threw everything into it. It was meant to be the fight ender. This actually gave me pause. Because that meant Cormier's goal once again was to knock Miocic out. I mentioned the problem of misaligned goals in Fight Study 72, "MMA Through the Lens of Marxism and Gastronomy." So the KO wasn't going to be a bonus or a byproduct like in their first fight, but rather, the knock out was the goal, and the takedowns were going to be the bonus. As the fight rolled on, this became more and more evident.

Now let's talk about the body shots because, in this fight, it wasn't just Stipe Miocic throwing shots to the body, but also Daniel Cormier. This was one wrinkle in this fight that took Miocic by surprise, and he did get hit by combinations that went first to his body then to his head. DC also mixed in body kicks and front kicks to the body. Miocic seemed much more prepared for this as Cormier outkicked him in their previous two fights. Miocic did an excellent job parrying Cormier's kicks, but he didn't seize these moments to counter as you would see with American Top Team fighters.

Cormier has many things going for him that make him successful, such as conditioning, grit, wrestling, hand fighting, durability, and most of all, timing. What Cormier doesn't do is feint. Cormier does what he does, which is why Jon Jones and now Stipe Miocic, were able to see most of DC's attacks.

Unlike the first two fights, Miocic took the lessons from the second fight and refined it and continuously blasted Cormier to the body. This time, not just with left hooks, but with shovel punches, right hooks, straights from both sides, body jabs, kicks, knees, and even a spinning elbow to the body against the cage.

The cage itself would become the most critical factor in this fight. More on this later.

Unlike in the second fight, Cormier did not freeze up when he took shots to the body. He didn't like it, but he maintained his composure. However, finding success with the body eventually meant Miocic would find his opportunities to attack the head. He would attack the body and finish to the head, attack the head then finish to the body. He would feint to the body, then attack the head, and also feint to the head and attack the body. This was why Cormier kept whiffing on his counters. Another new adaptation was Miocic using a switch step to attack with straight lefts to the body.

Why DC was able to take the body shots better in this fight was because he stopped using as much of the cross guard/mummy guard. He kept more of a traditional fighting stance, which allowed him to protect his body better and also throw counters. Paul mentioned that previously, with a George Foreman style guard, you're limited in counters. From a traditional stance, Cormier was able to answer back in exchanges. But it's give and take. Without the mummy guard, he could protect his body, but now he couldn't hand-fight. This severely limited his ability to take Miocic down. DC isn't or perhaps is no longer a fighter who can shoot blast doubles from open space. He bends over from hand-fighting in the pocket to grab a single leg. Remove the hand-fighting, and DC needed opportunistic takedowns. Over time, wrestlers become punchers because their bodies can't wrestle like it used to. A fighter who wasn't able to do that was Ben Askren, which was why he ended up retiring. If DC didn't really retire and continued to fight, he would begin to fight more and more like Fedor Emelianenko. Except without Fedor's power and speed. This is why DC knew after this fight, his body couldn't do what it took anymore to go for another title run. Even if he thought he did, after seeing and feeling the Jon Jones playbook again but this time with a fighter other than Jones, he must have also recognized this gameplan can be replicated by others. If Cormier were to fight again, his opponents would not only be able to study his losses to Jones but also to Miocic.

We can't talk about the Jon Jones playbook without talking about kicks. Cormier kicks regardless, and he's pretty good at it. Miocic used to kick a lot more, then he fell in love with his hands. In this fight, not only did he go back to his kicks, but he kicked more like Jon Jones. Jon Jones fights from either side but found a lot of success kicking from southpaw. I mentioned earlier about the switch step left straight, which Miocic not only used to DC's body but also to the head. He would confuse matters further by also using switch steps to throw left-side kicks to the body and to the head. So now, Miocic not only had the feints he also had variety.

To keep DC from marching forward, he not only used front kicks to the body, but he also used right stomp kicks to DC's knees, which, as far as I remember, Miocic has never thrown. For that matter, when have we ever seen Miocic throw front kicks? Cormier found success in their first two fights with leg kicks, but this time not only did Miocic check the kicks, he threw many of his own, not just with the rear leg but also with the inside low kick. DC still found success with low kicks when Miocic jabbed. However, Miocic had a counter for that other than just checking the kick. He would stance switch, pulling his lead leg back and have DC kick at air, only to blast DC with a left straight. Think ATT products, Jorge Masvidal or Tyron Woodley

Let's talk about the stance switch, which is brand new for Miocic. This not only left Cormier guessing, but Miocic could use this to either kick to the body or punch to the head. There were many moments where Miocic looked like a heavyweight TJ Dillashaw, even using triangle-step attacks where he would step left, right, then dart forward, or right, left, then dart forward with straights from either side. Miocic also used this to intercept Cormier as he was marching forward, much like a karate fighter. You saw shades of Lyoto Machida and Stephen Thompson coming from Miocic in this fight.

The switch also looks like a takedown, making Cormier drop his hands, leaving him open for the straights. Or as he dips to throw the overhand, he ends up eating a body kick. Miocic also mixed in takedown attempts to keep Cormier committed to dropping his hands.

This leads me to the question of takedowns. I've already begun to outline some of the factors that prevented takedowns, but these are mostly secondary effects. Let's look at direct causes.

Cormier said in the post-fight interview that he wasn't going to force takedowns but take opportunities Miocic gave him, which he and his camp probably thought were going to be much more plentiful. Cormier got one easy takedown in round one that Miocic was able to get back up from pretty quickly. What created that opportunity, in DC's own words were that Miocic overextended on his punches. Which he did. But after that moment, Miocic always had his weight right above his feet. He became that much more disciplined.

Cormier has a popular MMA podcast with Ariel Helwani, hosted by ESPN, which is not only the home of the UFC but is also the most prominent sports news outlet. This gives Cormier an enormous megaphone. Why would he use this platform and his relationships with ESPN and his authority as a media person himself, to give away his gameplan? Why would he tell Miocic to bring his wrestling shoes? This was all gamesmanship. Before any of us saw that Cormier wasn't going to rely on the mummy guard, DC already knew what he was sacrificing with this new strategy. That means for him to be successful with knocking Miocic out, he needed Miocic's hands out of position. DC needed Miocic to think he was going to be continually shooting for takedowns. Except if you study Cormier, you know he doesn't shoot for takedowns. All this did was to confuse viewers rather than confuse Miocic and his team. DC was banking on that overhand to land.

Something else Miocic did in this fight that took care of most of the takedown threats was to fight from further out. He wasn't going to be close enough to DC to allow him to grab his leg. He also circled and switched directions, which made DC not only reset but also didn't give him a stationary object to grab. This also made the collar ties less effective because Cormier would end up grabbing it with his arm overextended. This allowed Miocic to push Cormier's head down for knees.

Whenever Cormier came forward, Miocic would pivot. Miocic would also pivot after exchanges. Miocic kept getting to dead angles on Cormier, where he could punch Cormier, but Cormier couldn't hit him. Every time that overhand right came, Miocic would pivot, get perpendicular to Cormier, and blast him with punches.

Whenever DC dipped his body for any reason, he ate a shot. DC's primary defense is to dip to his right, which Jon Jones capitalized on in their previous fights. Jones even told him if he dips, he would hit him. Cormier said he knows that's a bad habit he has, and it won't be there when Jones tries. Yet in their fights, it was always there.

Against Miocic, he ate uppercuts, knees, front kicks, body kicks, and body punches. Always getting hit whenever he bent over factored into why he couldn't bend over to grab the high crotch.

In the countdown video for this event, there was a clip of Miocic working on stepping back and landing an uppercut on a sparring partner. We saw that exact move all night in this fight.

Something else DC mentioned on his podcast and in interviews with the media was how the smaller cage was to his advantage. DC prepared to fight in a smaller cage. Still, from what we saw, even though Miocic was pretty quiet about his adjustments, it was Miocic who ended up being better prepared. DC's best moments were in round one where not only did he catch Miocic with a takedown as he was overextending, but he also caught Miocic against the fence with a right hook, hurting Miocic momentarily. However, immediately after getting hurt, Miocic got off the fence. As big as Miocic was and as small as the cage was, he didn't run into the fence again after that. After round one, Miocic stopped making the same mistakes.

In their first two fights, Miocic happily engaged in hand-fighting with Cormier. When Cormier got close enough to Miocic to hand-fight, Miocic this time did not oblige him and circled away. Circling had to have been part of the gameplan in their second fight because throughout the contest, the corner of Miocic kept yelling for him to move his feet. This time, Miocic did. Miocic said in the first fight, he got caught off guard and underestimated Cormier. In the second fight, he said he felt like his feet were in quicksand, and he couldn't move. Because of how late in the match Miocic was able to turn it around, many fans and MMA writers alike wondered if it was just poor game-planning, and Miocic had to figure out a way to win while stuck in the mud. Having seen the plan they came up with for this fight, it does appear much of this was something they were working on for the second fight but were only able to execute now. All the movement they begged for, we finally got to see what they were asking for. You have to remember going into the second fight, Miocic didn't fight for over a year. That was the quicksand—the rust. And when Dominick Cruz says the rust is all mental, it's true. Miocic was in shape, he put in the rounds, but what he couldn't practice was being in front of a crowd, of having the pressure of fighting for a title. You're rusty to the pressures. This time as the defending champion, a role he's very familiar with, whatever bit of ring rust he had, he exorcised in round one. However, one concern is that Miocic seems vulnerable in the first round, especially after long layoffs. Future opponents will plan for this.

As far as fighting in the open, DC found his best success when he could get Miocic to back up. But other than in the first round, Miocic would only back up for so long before he circled out. This kept DC from building up any momentum, as well as only leaving moments of success to be just that, momentary.

Let's talk about the cage itself, or in particular, the fence. I mentioned how JDS got hurt against the fence earlier in the night and being heavyweights, it doesn't take that many steps to end up against the fence. Miocic got hurt against the fence in round one. Like in his first fight with Cormier, he got hit with a right hook after disengaging. The right hook off of collar tie or when disengaging was DC's best punch, rather than his new overhand right.

By round two, when the rust was gone entirely, Miocic was able to back DC against the fence, drop him with a right hook, and nearly finish him with punches from mount. Afterward, Cormier's left eyelid was swollen.

Miocic was the one who was better utilizing the cage. How that whole exchange happened was from the threat of the body shot. Miocic slipped to his left to fake the body shot, to bait DC to escape to the open side, where he would run into the fence. This was all a trap. From there, Miocic clipped DC with a right hook, the attack he was setting up all along. Since Cormier was escaping to that punch, he really walked himself into it. However, I mentioned DC's timing. He was able to stop just in time before eating the punch flush. The problem was he was right up against the fence, and as he tried to escape from the subsequent punches, he kept running into more fence, as the cage is circular. This is where eventually Miocic was able to land right hooks flush to DC and drop him. If this sequence looked familiar, it's something Justin Gaethje is very good at.

Something else from the countdown show that reappeared in this fight was cage wrestling. In training clips, Miocic had his sparring partners in double underhooks, pressed up against the fence. When they turned it around and had him against the fence, he controlled their wrist. This is something Paul brought up in the preview, how DC clinches the same way Cain Velasquez does. How Werdum stopped himself from getting hit by Velasquez was to control his wrist and to throw his own knees. This is what Miocic did, which is why the same perfect right hook from clinch didn't appear again.

Miocic didn't have a single note knee attack. He used it from clinch, to intercept Cormier as he came forward, or at the end of his own combinations.

Since DC gives his opponents the underhook, Miocic's counter was beautifully simple. He walked him to the fence with double unders. Having double underhooks and being pushed up against the fence meant DC couldn't drop down to grab the leg, and he couldn't re-pummel for a better position. And if he did free one side, Miocic would then wrist control. Something Miocic didn't do in their previous fights was to attack off the clinch breaks, this time he attacked off of every break. DC became aware of this and would wait for Miocic to throw his counter, then answer back with his punches afterward. It was constant countering of counters and adapting to the opponent's adaptations.

Where DC would rely on timing for his counters and wait for Miocic to finish his combination before answering back with his own, Miocic had trigger counters based on what Cormier did.

Cormier found a lot of success in their first two fights with jabs. When Cormier threw a jab, not only would Miocic kick, he would also slip the jab and answer back with a right straight.

Timing and durability make Cormier so good. Cormier came close to matching Miocic's volume by just absorbing Miocic's strikes, then firing back whenever Miocic was done. Since Cormier has shorter reach, he knows if he's getting hit, it means Miocic is in range to get hit also. DC, similar to Justin Gaethje, throws a lot of his punches blind. He bases it off of feel. So much of his style is based off of feel.

Miocic countered that by disengaging after combinations and allowing DC to march forward, only to intercept him with 1-2s.

This is a good time then to bring up the eye pokes. There were two. The first one was in round one when DC poked Miocic in the eye. I already mentioned the damage to DC's left eyelid after round two. That eye only got worse after an accidental eye poke by Miocic toward the end of round three, which ended up tearing Cormier's cornea. From early reports, it doesn't appear Cormier needs surgery, that'll all depend on how well it heals on its own. However, what could have changed the whole fight is if the referee had seen the eye poke. If he had, he would have brought in the doctor, and that would have been the end of the fight. Since it's so quiet without an audience, I thought officials might stop the fight after DC told his corner that he was blind in that eye. Out of frustration, rather than trying to whisper, Cormier was pretty loud about it. But the fight continued. It is a bit of a relief to find that the eye wasn't even worse.

In round four, with DC constantly rubbing that eye, it appeared Miocic was letting off the gas to allow DC to recover. It was Miocic, after all, who protected Cormier in round three from further damage by disengaging since the referee missed the poke. The referee, in fact, was urging Miocic to continue fighting until he told him to stop.

So how much did the eye poke affect the fight? We know DC was fighting blind in one eye. But also in another scenario, Miocic could have finished DC after the poke. Cormier and his fans wished the referee would have seen the eye poke, but if he had, Cormier probably would have lost the fight right there.

Miocic also didn't target that eye, which he legitimately damaged anyway at the end of round two. The poke affected Miocic as much as it did Cormier, as Stipe's killer instinct to finish the fight seemed to disappear. Even after the match, Miocic didn't celebrate with his usual excitement, as commentators pointed out. He's a sportsman, but this could also haunt Miocic in future fights.

DC's style and defense functioned the same after the eye poke because he's a fighter who's going to defend the same way, he's a fighter who fights best in a phone booth, and he's someone who needs to march forward. Little changed, when Cormier was getting punched, he answered back when Miocic finished. When Miocic backed up, he seized those opportunities. And when clinched up, Cormier, like any grappler, relied on feel rather than his eyes, because you can't see anything anyway other than the side of your opponent's head.

In fact, other than in round one, Cormier was landing more shots after the eye poke. As Miocic gets tired, he has a habit where if he can't slip a punch, rather than blocking the punch with his hands, he lowers his head and lets it bounce off the top of it. Much like Chuck Liddell. It's not the best defense, and I'm not sure why Miocic never uses a forearm guard, but it's how he's able to absorb straight punches so well. Hooks are what Miocic has a problem with.

Since he couldn't see, DC had to rely more on collar ties. Since DC used more collar ties, Miocic had more opportunity to grab double underhooks and walk Cormier to the fence. Cormier had no answer for this and couldn't come up with anything on the spot. Why Miocic held him there for longer was because Miocic was tired. Also, it was clear DC knew he needed a finish. Bob Cook even called for DC to look to finish him. This is Cormier's last fight. Cormier is willing to risk it all to win, which makes him dangerous, making clinch breaks more dangerous. The clinch was both good and bad for Miocic. It stopped Cormier's attacks, but it also allowed Cormier to recover. 

Round five started with a hug, and it was all or nothing for Cormier. He needed something emphatic. This is where it appeared as though Cormier was looking to either land another right hook or take Miocic down and hope that he had won two rounds in at least two of the judges' cards. But whenever he dipped, he got hit. When he tried to pressure Miocic to the fence, Miocic either circled out or clinched and pressed Cormier against the fence. The fight went all five rounds.

After a finish a piece, this last fight going to a decision is a testament to the preparation of both fighters.

DC almost did it, after being dropped and mounted in round two, to being poked in the eye at the end of round three, Cormier still nearly pulled it off. Unable to get takedowns, win in the clinch, or knock Miocic out, DC had one path left, which was volume. So Cormier tried to outwork Miocic. But people forget that before losing to Cormier, people compared Miocic to Cain Velasquez because of their similar work rate. Other than some similarities in how they use the clinch, Cormier and Velasquez aren't often compared. Even though they're teammates. Another reason for the Velasquez-Miocic comparison is in how they can smother fighters. A lot of what Miocic did looked like what Velasquez did to Junior dos Santos. Cormier didn't have to save anything for another fight, so he gave everything to catch up on volume. But whenever he got close to matching Miocic, Miocic would smother him against the fence. Whether Miocic is the greatest heavyweight of all time, better than Fedor Emelianenko is up for debate. However, what is clear to me is that Miocic is the most intelligent heavyweight fighter of all time. By this point in Fedor's career, he was mostly spamming right hands. Also, by this point, Fedor was no longer fighting the heavyweight greats but instead fighting Zuluzinho and Hong-Man Choi.

But with DC gone from the octagon seemingly for good, this does create a window for Cain Velasquez to come back to MMA, especially since he's no longer employed by the WWE. However, he would still need a win or two before he could challenge for the belt again. This leaves Miocic with either a Francis Ngannou rematch or a Jon Jones super fight. Though to maximize his earning potential, Ngannou would be better off in boxing than in MMA. But that's neither here nor there.

The thing about being champ, you fight a lot of rounds, your training camps are longer because you're training for five rounds, and you take a lot of damage overall. A massive puncher like Ngannou doesn't end up taking much damage because he finishes his opponents so quickly. A dominant champion like Jon Jones also doesn't take a lot of damage. Also, Jon Jones has never been dropped in a fight. With the wars Miocic has been in already, his durability is fading. This might create an opportunity for fresher fighters to come in and take the title. This is what happened to Velasquez. It's never fighter A vs. fighter B. Fighting is cumulative. And whomever Miocic fights next when he enters that octagon, he'll already have miles on him. Hopefully, he's already sparring less for the sake of longevity. Since Miocic has already sealed his legacy, let's hope he gets some massive paydays before he rides off into the sunset.