UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic is 1-1 with rival Daniel Cormier but suggests a boxing match against Tyson Fury is far more appealing to him at this point than settling the score with DC.
Reacting to Furyโs mention of him in a recent interview, Miocic has expressed an interest in granting the former heavyweight championโs wish and says he would even be happy to meet him in the boxing ring as opposed to the UFC Octagon.
โTyson Fury is coming in the mix now, I hear. I like a new challenge,โ he told BJPenn.com. โIโd love to box him. Heโs a great fighter. Heโs a good dude, and I think weโd put on a good show.
โWith DC, I didnโt fluke knock him out, I beat him. I decisively beat him. The first fight DC caught me with a punch in the first round. But [the] second fight I won. I didnโt get lucky.
โRight now, (a Cormier fight) doesnโt really intrigue me. More with the Tyson Fury, I like that.โ
Coming as it does weeks after Tyson Fury lit up the WWE with a cameo appearance, and days after KSI and Logan Paul turned the fight world on its head with a six-round headliner, talk of Miocic and Fury meeting for a fight should come as no surprise. We have, it seems, entered a new realm, an alternate reality in which business sense rules common sense and where anything goes.
Speaking of KSI and Logan Paul, Saturdayโs (November 9) six-round main event at Staples Center, Los Angeles, may have irked the hardcore fraternity but it did, as expected, some healthy numbers on pay-per-view.
Or at least thatโs the verdict from its promoter Eddie Hearn, who says, despite the backlash and sluggish ticket sales, KSI vs. Logan Paul II was a Box Office smash, by far and away the biggest success story for Sky Sports this calendar year.
โThe first fight did 1.2m pay-per-view buys globally. This was much, much bigger this time around,โ Hearn told Sirius XMโs Fight Nation.
โItโs the biggest pay-per-view in the UK of the year so far. That includes the first (Anthony) Joshua vs. (Andy) Ruiz Jr fight from America. This fight was cheaper, half the price of that.
โI believe DAZN will announce some numbers this week, but I understand it was the most-viewed fight on DAZN so far. It was a big subscription-driver as well.
โIt wasnโt just those two key territories; it was all those other little territories. When we look at the breakdown on Fite TV, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Eastern Europe, Africa โ it was everywhere.
โYou donโt realise the audience these guys have. They brought our sport to reach new ground and reach new territories, new demographics and new markets.โ
Though the fight didnโt start until five oโclock in the morning, UK time, it would seem plenty of people stayed up or woke up to see KSI and Paul settle their score. Thatโs good news for KSI and Logan Paul but means very little in terms of boxingโs popularity going forward into 2020.
It suggests a third fight between the pair, their second as โprosโ, could be a lucrative avenue worth exploring, but does little for the future ticket sales or pay-per-view buys of Billy Joe Saunders and Devin Haney, who both appeared on the undercard.
Ultimately, when weighing up the pros and cons, we can say this much: it was a unanimous win for KSI and Logan Paul and YouTubers all around the world. It was their success story. Their breakthrough moment. Their party.
Boxing, on the other hand, was merely invited; used for its accommodation.