At UFC 220, Cormier successfully defended the light heavyweight title with a second-round stoppage win over Volkan Oezdemir in the co-main event. In the main event, Miocic halted Francis Ngannou’s dramatic ascent, retaining his heavyweight title in the process.
With neither man having an obvious challenger in place, pitting the two of them together made complete sense.
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Cormier was undefeated at heavyweight before relocating to light heavyweight, and he profiled as a formidable test for Miocic, while the heavyweight champion had put together arguably the best resume of anyone in the division’s history, and seemed to have an athletic advantage over the undersized wrestler.
After coaching opposite one another on Season 27 of The Ultimate Fighter, the two squared off in the main event of UFC 226, and late in the opening stanza, Cormier dropped Miocic with a short hook to become just the second person to hold championship gold in two weight classes simultaneously.
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Cormier’s victory turned up the volume on the rivalry between the two, with Miocic getting a rematch and a measure of revenge at UFC 241 the following summer, setting up a trilogy bout between the two a year later. The Ohio native won the rubber match and the series, with Cormier hanging up his gloves following their third meeting.
It wasn’t the first instance of champions facing one another or even the most memorable individual matchup in the group, but it was the only one that produced a lasting rivalry and multiple championship fights.