Stipe Miocic still wants to fight Junior dos Santos, and that feeling is mutual.

Former UFC champion "Cigano" hasn’t fought since his third bout with heavyweight kingpin Cain Velasquez in October, and the knockout artist told MMAFighting.com he’s hoping to face Miocic in his return to the Octagon later this year.

"I saw this October card in Rio as a possibility," dos Santos said of the UFC 179 card scheduled for Oct. 25 in Rio de Janeiro, "but my coaches think it’s too soon to be back because I’m not even training hard yet and I need to readapt myself to training before starting a camp. October would be too early for me."

dos Santos was removed from a fight with Miocic at the TUF: Brazil 3 Finale card in May due to a broken hand. His hand is good to go, but it’s his right knee that is holding him back this time.

"It was a small injury," he said. "We always have small injuries during training camps, but you ignore it and continue training. When I had to stop training because of my broken hand, I felt a pain in my knee. I did all the exams and it showed nothing, so my doctor asked me to do some rehab.

"He cleared me to slowly return to training now to see how I’m going to feel. I will schedule my next fight when I feel 100 percent ready. I talked to Joe Silva and explained everything to him, and I’m positive that I will be ready to fight again in November."

Eyeing a card in November, "Cigano" welcomes a bout with Miocic, who handled Fabio Maldonado one of his fastest losses ever with a 35-second TKO in Sao Paulo.

"Miocic is doing a good job, coming off great wins," dos Santos said. "I was focused on fighting him before, trained for him, so I think it would be a good fight for me. It would be a beautiful fight for the fans as well."

Stopping Miocic’s winning streak in devastating fashion would naturally bring a former champion immediately back in title contention, but a pair of dominant losses to the reigning champion means the Brazilian needs to do more to earn another shot at the gold.

"I need to become more of a complete fighter to be champion again," he admits. "I went to Rio de Janeiro for that, and I’m on the right way. A fight between Miocic and I would be really interesting because he’s a wrestler with a good stand-up game, so he would bring a challenge to me as I would bring to him."