UFC: Stipe Miocic is being over looked, but for good reason.

Stipe Miocic has had a strained relationship at times with the UFC throughout his employment with the company. Miocic will go down as one of the best Heavyweights in UFC history but was made to wait for his shot at the gold. After Stipe Miocic’s brutal knockout of MMA veteran Andrei Arlovski at UFC 195, Stipe would march over to UFC President Dana White and scream at him demanding a title shot he deserved. Dana White obliged. 2 years on and Stipe feels as if the UFC are overlooking him again. And he is correct. But that doesn’t mean anything will change.

Stipe Miocic is considered to be the greatest UFC heavyweight champion of all time, he holds the record for most successful defences of the belt and has racked up a flurry of highlight reel knockouts during his time with the belt around his waist. At UFC 226 Stipe Miocic would fight Light Heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier as Cormier sought to unify Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight belts. Cormier would catch Miocic with a right hand as Miocic tried escaping the clinch, finishing Stipe Miocic in the first round. Now Stipe wants a rematch.

Here is why he won’t get the rematch he wants…just yet.

After the UFC 226 main event was over Stipe Miocic was unceremoniously escorted backstage to make way for the pre-planned, WWE style, arrival of Brock Lesner. Brock last fought in the UFC over a year ago. A fight he won but would later be ruled a no contest due to the use of performance enhancing drugs. So, you’d be justified in thinking that Brock Lesner does not deserve a shot at the title. However, you are looking at it wrong. Brock may not have worked his way up the rankings to earn his title shot, but Brock Lesner is by far the biggest fight Daniel Cormier could take. Due to Brock Lesner’s past in the world of professional wrestling Brock knows how to sell a PPV event and is a huge draw in the sport. Brock may not deserve the fight against Daniel Cormier. But Daniel Cormier deserves a shot against Brock Lesner.

Lesner is a PPV sensation. He has staggeringly been the main event of four of the UFC's top ten PPV sales records, all of which are over one million. Lesner is in a unique club and has a star power only matched by Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor. At the height of Lesner's UFC fame he brought in a paying audience of 1.6 million. The second highest ever PPV sale in UFC history. Lesner is one of the best in the business at putting the paying eyes of the public on him.  

The UFC find themselves in a strange position. They seem ever more reliant on ‘money fights’, bringing back ready-made stars of George St-Pierre and Brock Lesner so that belt holders and future Hall of Famers can have a big pay out before they retire, rather than being able to sell and market the stable of fighters they have currently. Occasionally a fighter will breakout, become a worldwide phenom and transcend the sport, Conor McGregor for example. But these fighters are growing increasingly few and far between and mostly rise to popularity through their own hardwork and their own stardom. For fighters without brash, smack talking personality the UFC's inability to market fighters as they come through the ranks should be a concern. Hopefully the UFC can figure out a successful marketing formula before fans inevitably grow tired of the ‘money fights.’