Despite Jon Jones moving up a weight class, Daniel Cormier thinks he might end up the bigger man against Stipe Miocic.
Jones (26-1 MMA, 20-1 UFC) relinquished his light heavyweight title in August 2020 and has since been making some serious gains in the gym by putting on size and muscle. He’s yet to make his heavyweight debut, but UFC president Dana White stated that a fight with former champion Miocic makes sense for this summer.
Miocic (20-4 MMA, 14-4 UFC), on the other hand, hasn’t competed since losing his title to Francis Ngannou at UFC 260. In his past three fights, Miocic has weighed in under 235 pounds, which makes Cormier wonder if Jones could end up having the size advantage.
“I believe that this is an evenly matched fight because I’ve been in there with both of the guys,” Cormier said on his ESPN show “DC & RC.” “Jones has different weapons than Miocic, but Miocic has some crazy weapons himself. For a big guy, he does a lot of things really, really well, and what I believe that is interesting in the matchup also is that Jones will be the 205-pounder coming up.
“Stipe is a lifetime heavyweight, (but) Jones will be bigger because if you look at Jones now. He’s a big boy, and Miocic has been slim for a while. So a lot of different storylines playing into this one because does Stipe put on weight? Does Stipe stay small? Does Jones get smaller as he approaches the fight?”
With former two-time champion Miocic being dubbed the greatest heavyweight of all time by many, Cormier thinks Jones’ divisional debut absolutely should be against someone as credentialed as Miocic.
“I think it’s too risky. I honestly think it’s too risky to let him fight anybody else at heavyweight,” Cormier said. “What if he loses? Which is a very high possibility.”
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