By The Numbers: Stipe Miocic-Daniel Cormier Trilogy

It was the series that put an Ohio firefighter on a pedestal as an all-time great.

Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier toed the line against one another three times between July 7, 2018 and Aug. 15, 2020 to determine the fate of the Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight title. Miocic won two of the three matchups, the last of which resulted in Cormier’s retirement from mixed martial arts. More than three years after they settled their differences, the two men remain interminably linked by what took place between them inside the cage.

As their exploits against one another continue to drift into the past, a by-the-numbers look at the historic Miocic-Cormier rivalry:

770: Days between the first and third Miocic-Cormier fights. Cormier punched out the Strong Style Fight Team ace in the first round of their UFC 226 pairing in July 2018 and then lost the two rematches that followed, bowing to Miocic in a fourth-round technical knockout at UFC 241 in Augusto 2019 before being outpointed to a unanimous decision at UFC 252 in August 2020.

3,222: Seconds of fight time in the Miocic-Cormier series. They battled one another inside the Octagon for a total of 53:42—the equivalent of more than 10 rounds.

17,464: Fans to witness the first chapter of the Miocic-Cormier rivalry in the UFC 226 headliner at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It was the highest attendance figure of the trilogy—the buying public was not allowed at their third meeting due to the coronavirus pandemic—and resulted in a nearly $5.7 million gate.

741: Combined total strikes landed by Miocic and Cormier in their three meetings. More than half of those (365) were landed in their second encounter.

4: Successful title defenses for Miocic as UFC heavyweight champion—an all-time record for the division set in his final confrontation with Cormier. Randy Couture and Tim Sylvia held the previous mark with three apiece.

49: Significant strikes by which Cormier outlanded the Marcus Marinelli protege in their trilogy. “DC” connected on 311 such strikes, while Miocic answered with 262 of them.

2: Completed takedowns each for Miocic and Cormier across their rivalry. Miocic was 2-for-10 on his attempts, while Cormier was 2-for-5.

72: Inches of reach for Cormier, putting him at an eight-inch deficit against Miocic. At 5-foot-11, he was also at a five-inch disadvantage in height.

8: Two-division titleholders in Ultimate Fighting Championship history. Cormier became the fifth—Couture, B.J. Penn, Conor McGregor and Georges St. Pierre preceded him—when he toppled Miocic at UFC 226. Amanda Nunes, Henry Cejudo and Jon Jones have since expanded the exclusive list.

.927: Cumulative winning percentage between Miocic and Cormier prior to the onset of their rivalry. Miocic was 18-2, with UFC wins over Francis Ngannou, Junior dos Santos, Alistair Overeem, Fabricio Werdum, Andrei Arlovski, Mark Hunt, Fabio Maldonado, Gabriel Gonzaga, Roy Nelson, Shane del Rosario, Philip De Fries and Joey Beltran. Cormier was 20-1, with UFC victories over Nelson, Anthony Johnson (twice), Volkan Oezdemir, Anderson Silva, Alexander Gustafsson, Dan Henderson, Patrick Cummins and Frank Mir.