UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic credits firefighting for victory
By James Dielhenn
Last Updated: 23/05/16 9:54am
Stipe Miocic have revealed that his day job as a firefighter played a pivotal role as he claimed the UFC heavyweight championship.
The Ohio puncher claimed the heaviest prize in the sport earlier this month with a knockout win over Fabricio Werdum, silencing 45,000 fans packed into a Brazilian stadium.
But for Miocic, fighting a dangerous heavyweight champion on enemy territory pales into insignificance compared with his 9-to-5 job fighting fires.
I'll be back at work. I will take my belt in to show the guys, they want to see it.
Stipe Miocic
"It definitely does help because it allows you to be calm, cool and collected under any situation," Miocic exclusively told Sky Sports.
"Even with fighting, you are calm. Even if it's chaos, you still have to keep your mind right. I'll be back at work. I will take my belt in to show the guys, they want to see it."
The 33-year-old American has been celebrated in his home city of Cleveland after breaking the notorious sports curse associated with the NFL's Browns, the NBA's Cavaliers and the MLB's Indians - three teams that have not won a major title since 1964.
Miocic (15-2) achieved his feat by back-pedalling away from the aggressive Werdum and landing the decisive shot as he retreated in Curitiba.
"He was trying to push the pace, which was fine but I was getting my timing, so I knew it was a matter of time," he said. "I was beginning to take him apart.
"I was catching him. I hit him with one right hand and he stumbled. That's when he started to fire at me, so I stepped to my right and hit him with that right hand. I was seeing that his hands were starting to fall down a little bit.
"We train how to throw punches when going backwards all the time. Then some instinct comes into too - that's survival mode.
"It's the heavyweight division, and that's why everyone loves a heavyweight. We're big boys and it doesn't take much to knock someone out."
