After losing Miocic trilogy, Cormier stands by decision to retire

FILE – Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic in action in the third round during their UFC Heavyweight Title Bout at UFC 241 at Honda Center on August 17, 2019 in Anaheim, California. Joe Scarnici/Getty Images/AFP

MANILA, Philippines—Daniel Cormier is calling it a career.

The story of Cormier ended with a disappointing chapter after he lost to Stipe Miocic for the UFC heavyweight championship Sunday at UFC 252.

“I’m not interested in fighting for anything but titles and I don’t imagine there’s going to be a title in the future. That’ll be it for me,” said Cormier (22-3, 1 No Contest) in his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan. “I’ve had a long run, it’s been great. I just fought my last fight for [the] heavyweight championship, it was a pretty good fight.”

Cormier had already expressed his wish to retire even before UFC 252 when he told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani in June that the third bout against Miocic would be his last.

His retirement, however, didn’t go as planned as his last two bouts ended in bitter defeats to Miocic, the first being a technical knockout and the second via unanimous decision, denying his chance to walk away from the sport as a champion.

Cormier defeated nearly every opponent that came his way but he just couldn’t get past Jon Jones in the light heavyweight division, although he did beat Miocic in their first bout in August 2019 to take the heavyweight belt.

Still, Jones and Miocic are considered as the best light heavyweight and heavyweight UFC fighters of all time.

Cormier leaves the sport as one of the best there is, having won the light heavyweight and heavyweight titles.

Several of Cormier’s contemporaries, both as fighters and off-cage personalities, wished him well in his retirement, including UFC President Dana White, Michael Bisping, Megan Olivi, and Uriah Hall.