UFC heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic is not that intrigued by a third fight with Daniel Cormier, who said that’s the one fight he wants before he retires.
Miocic and Cormier split their first two fights with Miocic scoring a fourth-round KO on Aug. 17. Miocic said eye pokes and punches in that fight and previous ones led to a torn retina.
“I got done with the fight and was seeing spots in my eye that I never saw before,” Miocic said Monday on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. “It didn’t feel right so I went to the doctor, and he said you have a tear in your retina.
“It was like dark floaties in my eye; it’s gotten better, but it’s still there.”
Miocic, 37, can do some stretching, but not a lot more. He’ll visit the doctor in a month to see about a timeline for a return.
When he’s ready to return, Miocic’s interest has turned away from MMA.
“Tyson Fury is coming in the mix now, I hear,” he said of boxing’s lineal heavyweight champ. “I like a new challenge.”
Miocic said he’s 100% more interested in fighting Fury than Cormier.
“I’d love to box him,” Miocic said. “He’s a great fighter. He’s a good dude, and I think we’d put on a good show.
“With DC, I didn’t fluke knock him out, I beat him. I decisively beat him. The first fight DC caught me with a punch in the first round. But second fight I won. I didn’t get lucky. Right now, [a Cormier fight] doesn’t really intrigue me. More with the Tyson Fury, I like that.”
Cormier, 40, told Helwani’s Show in September: “I’m gonna fight this guy again. My intention is to fight him in the right way. … It has to be against Stipe, no one else matters.”