Dominick Cruz questions Stipe Miocic’s preparation for his return to the UFC.
Miocic (20-4 MMA, 14-4 UFC) challenges Jon Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) for the heavyweight title in the main event of UFC 295 on Nov. 11 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Miocic hasn’t competed since losing the belt to Francis Ngannou by knockout in March 2021. Meanwhile, Jones returned from a more than three-year layoff to quickly submit Ciryl Gane and capture the vacant heavyweight title at UFC 285 in March.
Having not seen or heard much from Miocic during his time away, Cruz expressed concern over his firefighter duties and the impact it could have on his training.
“Am I the only one who doesn’t know how much Stipe’s been training?” Cruz told ESPN. “Have we been seeing videos of him training a lot? Where’s he been? Is he doing martial arts against trees? Because he’s facing a giant, giant man that can fight, and it’s not a fire. I’m just wondering. You’re not fighting a fire. Have you been fighting humans in the woods? I’m just trying to understand what you’re doing to prepare.”
Miocic holds wins over Ngannou, Daniel Cormier twice, Fabricio Werdum, and slew of other heavyweight greats. But Cruz pointed out that was back when he was active and not coming off a long layoff.
“He was training a lot consistently and fighting a lot consistently,” Cruz said. “What has he been doing now? Fighting fires, right? I’m just curious.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 295.
