Battle for Greatest UFC Heavyweight of All Time

This Saturday, two of the greatest UFC heavyweights will complete their trilogy for not only the UFC heavyweight belt, but also the title of “Greatest UFC Heavyweight of all time. Current heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic looks to beat his greatest rival Daniel ‘DC” Cormier one final time.

Miocic is considered by many to be the greatest UFC heavyweight of all time. Miocic holds the UFC record with most heavyweight-title defenses at three, with two defenses by first-round knockout and one defense by a dominant five-round decision. Miocic holds a professional record of 19-3 with 15 of those wins by KO/TKO.

Miocic has great striking with underrated wrestling. Miocic captured the heavyweight title at UFC 198 by knocking out former champion Fabricio Werdum in the first round. Miocic would fight MMA legend Alistair Overeem later that year and knocked him out in the first round too. Miocic followed that performance up with a rematch against former champion Junior dos Santos in May 2017.

After suffering some hard-leg kicks, Miocic would go on to knock out dos Santos in the first round. Miocic took the rest of the year off and was matched up against rising powerhouse Francis Ngannou in January 2018. After participating in a crazy first round, Miocic used Ngannou’s inexperience against him and wrestled him the rest of the fight to win by decision and set the new record for most UFC heavyweight title defense.

Miocic signed to fight Cormier the following July and lost by first-round knockout. Miocic wouldn’t fight again until August of the following year against Cormier. After being down three rounds, Miocic came back in the fourth round to TKO Cormier and reclaim his heavyweight throne.

Miocic has a chance to retire Cormier this Saturday in their final fight.

Cormier, a former two-division world champion, is fighting in his final MMA fight this Saturday. Cormier is a former UFC light heavyweight champion who picked up four wins, with three of those being title defenses during his reign. Cormier did suffer a loss to Jon Jones in July 2017, but Jones later failed a drug test, so Cormier was given back the belt.

After the tough time, Cormier faced rising star Volkan Oezdemir the following January and tko’ed him in the second round. Cormier was then matched up against Miocic – the heavyweight champion.

Even though Cormier was undersized against Miocic, Cormier knocked Miocic out cold in the first round to become the second person in UFC history to hold two titles at the same time. Cormier took a short notice fight against knockout artist Derrick Lewis on three weeks’ notice that following November. Even with such short preparation against a dangerous opponent, Cormier submitted Lewis in the second round to become the first person in UFC history to defend both the light heavyweight title and heavyweight title.

Cormier and Miocic were matched up again in August 2019 where, despite being up three rounds, Cormier would lose by fourth round TKO. Cormier is looking to reclaim the heavyweight title and retire on top.

This trilogy fight is the biggest fight in UFC’s heavyweight history. I’m picking Cormier to win by decision and retire on top. Watch all the fights this Saturday on PPV!

Tidwell’s picking record: 1-1 (Correctly picked Chris Weidman to win by decision last Saturday)