Brock Lesnar isn’t coming back, and also the date and competition for the next name defense of UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier has been set.
According to a report by ESPN, after Lesnar informed UFC president Dana White he isn’t returning into the Octagon, Cormier will now fight Stipe Miocic at a rematch in a UFC PPV after this summer, taking place August 17 in Anaheim, California. It is not yet known if this PPV will be known as UFC 240 or UFC 241.
The revealing of the rematch between Cormier and Miocic puts an end to the rumors that Lesnar would be returning to the Octagon to fight Cormier. If you recall, after Cormier knocked out Miocic last summer at UFC 226, Lesnar entered the Octagon and pushed Cormier, with all the UFC announcing plans for this struggle to be next. Instead, it never occurred. Lesnar continued to wrestle for WWE while Cormier proceeded to earn a successful title defense against Derrick Lewis. Miocic, meanwhile, had kept high hopes of obtaining a rematch. It wasn’t anticipated the UFC would reward him one, but now it appears that’s the case.
Cormier (22-1, 1 NC) is 11-1, 1 NC from the UFC with a perfect 4-0 record as a heavyweight inside the Octagon. Besides a loss to Jon Jones and a No Decision to Jones, Cormier was flawless in his MMA career. He is now riding a three-fight win series, with victories over Lewis, Miocic and Volkan Oezdemir within his last three contests. He hasn’t lost a fight in over four years, because the very first Jones bout. Now 40 decades of age, Cormier does not have lots of fights left in himand it was expected he’d fight Lesnar and possibly Jones for a third time before drifting off into the sunset. Instead, he will take on Miocic in a rematch.
Miocic (18-3) is 12-3 overall from the UFC. He hasn’t fought since his sudden KO loss to Cormier last summer, but before that was riding a six-fight win streak that included victories over the likes of Franics Ngannou, Junior dos Santos, Alistair Overeem, Fabricio Werdum, Andrei Arlovski and Mark Hunt. He was demanding a rematch from Cormier for some time, but the UFC was determined that Lesnar could get the rematch. However, with Lesnar now not being a part of the UFC’s future plans, Miocic is getting the rematch he deserves.
Though Miocic was the preferred heading into the first battle, it is difficult to see him being preferred in the rematch. Instead, it seems quite likely that Cormier is going to be the betting favorite with this second battle. After all, he deserves it considering he brutally knocked out Miocic the very first time they fought. That is not to say it won’t be an interesting rematch. Miocic has all the abilities in the world to make the adjustments necessary to create the rematch a more aggressive struggle, and now we’ll learn if he can accomplish this. He will be looking to reclaim his gold this summer, while Cormier will be seeking to get another win and continue to construct his legacy.
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