Stipe Miocic is retired, but apparently not retired enough to rule out fighting literally anybody. Bloody Elbow posted on X on Monday that the former UFC heavyweight champion made what it called a surprise “I’d fight anyone” claim while revealing what it would take to end his retirement.
The post points to a full story. The specific conditions Miocic attached to a comeback aren’t spelled out in the post itself, so I’m not going to guess at a dollar figure or a dream opponent. The framing tells you enough. The door isn’t welded shut, and the guy Bloody Elbow calls the consensus heavyweight GOAT doesn’t sound picky about who’s waiting on the other side of it.
The comment came during a press run that has Miocic talking more than he usually does. In an interview with Athlon Sports, he weighed in on Tom Aspinall vacating the heavyweight title, Alex Pereira’s ceiling and Josh Hokit’s antics.
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The Aspinall stuff is where he got personal. Aspinall was promoted to undisputed champion after Jon Jones left, then took an eye poke from Ciryl Gane in his first defense at UFC 321 in October 2025. Almost a year later, after a setback in his recovery, he gave up the belt. He still has no clear timeline for a return, and the injuries have hit his everyday life outside the Octagon.
Miocic gave him credit for making the call.
“I understand it’s probably hard for him to vacate his title the way he did,” Miocic told Athlon. “He was on top of the world, and then everything changed.”
He’s been there. Miocic said he has torn his retina before and tied his own eye trouble to his rematch with Daniel Cormier at UFC 241, where he was poked accidentally. He said that afterward he noticed “my eyes are kind of weird-looking and feeling weird.” His advice for Aspinall was blunt: “he just has to move on from it and just see it as bad luck.”
That Cormier rivalry is a big part of the Miocic résumé. Cormier knocked him out to take the heavyweight title in their first fight, which is the night Brock Lesnar climbed into the Octagon to confront the new champ. Miocic got the belt back at UFC 241, poked eye and all.
As for the division he left behind, it’s a waiting room. Aspinall is plotting a return and a shot at revenge on Gane, and he’ll be hoping Gane gets past Hokit at UFC 334 so that rematch is sitting there when he’s cleared. Miocic, for his part, already has opinions on Hokit.
My take: “I’d fight anyone” is exactly what I want to hear from a fighter, and Miocic never fought like a guy who cared about the name on the poster. But a retired man saying it costs him nothing. Until the terms are public and somebody at the UFC actually picks up the phone, this is a good quote. The real heavyweight news on the calendar is still Gane vs. Hokit at UFC 334, and the winner of that one is the most logical name for a returning Miocic to call out.
