Stipe Miocic unimpressed with Daniel Cormier’s UFC 230 win - ‘He beat a guy with a lot of Instagram followers’

Daniel Cormier successfully defended his Heavyweight title last Saturday night (Nov. 3, 2018) by submitting Derrick Lewis in the main event of UFC 230 inside Madison Square Garden in New York, N.Y. (highlights).

But not everyone was impressed with “DC’s” historic win, including former division champion Stipe Miocic, who is still steamed Cormier didn’t take him up on his offer to rematch him at UFC 230. In Stipe’s eyes, Daniel took the easy road by fighting a guy who is nothing more than a social media star.

His words, not mine.

“Yeah I saw the fight. I saw ‘DC’ beat a guy with a bunch of Instagram followers, with one hand,” said an unimpressed Miocic on a recent edition of the Ariel Helwani MMA Show.

“I offered myself to fight ‘DC’ on that card and he said no. They told me that he wasn’t available and literally a week later, he is fighting Lewis. It was annoying (watching the fight), it should be me,” he added. “There’s a ton of guys who never defend the belt and they get title shot rematches. I defended it three times, did it as favor for a super fight and I don’t get a rematch?”

Cormier knocked Stipe out in the very first round at UFC 226 this past summer to become UFC’s “champ-champ.” Since then, Miocic has been on the campaign trail trying to get a do-over. And while “DC” admits Stipe did throw his name in the hat for UFC 230, he knows taking on Miocic on short notice was a bigger gamble than fighting Lewis.

While some may view that as a compliment to Stipe, the hulking heavyweight doesn’t see it that way.

“I mean, it’s not like he was beating me the whole fight. I was winning that fight and he caught me with a shot,” he added. “It’s not good enough. You think I was in great shape? 100-percent (he would’ve fought.) I want my belt back, that is my belt.”

As far as the possibility of getting passed over yet again in favor of Brock Lesnar, Stipe says the WWE champion hasn’t done anything in MMA to warrant a shot at the strap, making him irrelevant.

“Who cares, Brock is doing something in Saudi Arabia. He hasn’t fought in two and a half years. He’s irrelevant,” added Stipe.

After his win, Cormier once again called for a fight against Brock, and since “DC” is on his way out, it’s hard to believe the promotion wouldn’t let him call his final shot before retiring from the hurt business.

Still, Miocic isn’t letting up in his pursuit to score a rematch against Cormier, even if it means sitting out for an extended period of time. And it could be a very realistic scenario, as “DC” plans to retire in March of 2019.

“I’ll just keep talking, man. I deserve the shot. I broke the record, I worked my butt off, defended it multiple times, more than anyone in (heavyweight) UFC. There are guys who have never even defended the belt and got a rematch.”

Should Conor McGregor get an immediate rematch against Khabib Nurmagomedov after getting worked over by “The Eagle” at UFC 229 fairly easily, you know Stipe’s frustrations will only intensify.

And you can’t really blame him, can you?