UFC President Dana White says that Cormier has been offered other fights since losing to Miocic, but Cormier is dead set of facing Miocic and Miocic alone.
“It’s very clear – [Stipe is] hurt and when he’s not, we’ll make the fight [against Cormier],” White said in an interview with ESPN (via Harry Kettle of BJPenn.com). “Cormier basically came out and said that Stipe has the ability to retire him. He says if he doesn’t take this fight them I’m gonna retire. We’ll see how this thing plays out, but I hope that’s not the case. I have offered him other fights. I don’t want him to retire, I don’t think he should retire. You know me, I’m usually the guy chasing guys to retire. He feels like Stipe is the fight he can get up for and that’s what he wants, and he doesn’t want anyone else. I can’t make him fight anybody else. He needs to do it, so, I’d like to see that fight happen. Hopefully it does.’”
Miocic recently revealed that he has been cleared from an eye injury suffered during UFC 241, but a return date hasn’t been set at this time. The UFC reportedly has main event bouts booked through UFC 250 in May, so a potential Miocic versus Cormier trilogy bout could happen in June at the earliest.
