Brock Lesnar is not coming back, and the date and competition for the next name defense of UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier was set.
According to a report by ESPN, after Lesnar told UFC president Dana White he isn’t returning into the Octagon, Cormier will now struggle Stipe Miocic in a rematch at a UFC PPV later this summer, taking place August 17 at Anaheim, California. It is not yet known if this PPV is going to be known as UFC 240 or UFC 241.
The showing of this rematch between Cormier and Miocic puts an end to the rumors that Lesnar would be returning to the Octagon to combat Cormier. If you remember, after Cormier knocked out Miocic past summer at UFC 226, Lesnar entered the Octagon and shoved Cormier, together with all the UFC announcing plans for this fight to be following. On the contrary, it never happened. Lesnar continued to wrestle for WWE while Cormier went on to earn a successful title defense against Derrick Lewis. Miocic, meanwhile, had retained high hopes of obtaining a rematch. It wasn’t anticipated the UFC would reward him with one, but it appears that’s the case.
Cormier (22-1, 1 NC) is 11-1, 1 NC in the UFC with a perfect 4-0 record as a heavyweight inside the Octagon. Besides a reduction to Jon Jones along with a No Decision to Jones, Cormier has been flawless in his MMA career. He’s now riding a three-fight win series, with successes over Lewis, Miocic and Volkan Oezdemir within his past three contests. He has not lost a fight in over four years, because the first Jones bout. Now 40 decades old, Cormier does not have many fights left in himand it was expected he’d struggle Lesnar and possibly Jones for a third time before riding off into the sunset. Instead, he’ll now take on Miocic at 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 had been demanding a rematch against Cormier for a while, but the UFC was determined that Lesnar would find the rematch. But with Lesnar now not being a part of the UFC’s future plans, Miocic is receiving the rematch he warrants.
Though Miocic was the favorite heading into the first battle, it is difficult to see him being favored in the rematch. Instead, it appears quite likely that Cormier is going to be the betting favorite with this second battle. After all, he deserves it believing he pumped out Miocic the first time they fought. That is not to say it won’t be an intriguing rematch. Miocic has all of the abilities on the planet to make the adjustments required to create the rematch a more competitive struggle, and today we’ll learn if he can do so. He’ll be seeking to reclaim his gold that summer, while Cormier will probably be seeking to get another win and continue to build his legacy.
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