Stipe Miocic

In a little over two weeks from now, the UFC return to action with an amazing heavyweight main event between Francis Ngannou and champion Stipe Miocic. Now, in a new interview the champ reveals that he does feel disrespected for the UFC’s big push on his opponent.

We’ve seen this before. The UFC gets behind a fighter with all their promotional might, to try and sell pay-per-views and tickets.

Unfortunately, this strategy sometimes leaves the other fighter in the dark.

Anyone who’s been paying attention to the months of promotion of Ngannou has seen words like “The baddest man on the planet”, and other promising words of hype for the African star.

Even oddsmakers are slighting the champion at UFC 220, as he’s the betting underdog heading into fight night.

Now, thanks to a new interview with The MMA Hour, Stipe Miocic shares his thoughts on the Ngannou hype train.

Check it out:

“Obviously, for sure. Listen, I feel a little bit disrespected, but I’m not going to dwell on it.”

“He’s got more hype on him I guess. The guy hits super hard. We’re making a big thing about it. I’ve fought some good guys, you know? That’s how we are. I’m not much of a trash talker I just like to fight, that’s what I do.”

“All the pressure is on him, honestly. … The best guys he’s faced, I knocked them out two years ago. So, whatever.”

“I won’t dwell on that. They took care of it. They did take care of it. Yeah, next question.”

“I saw the one submission he had against Anthony Hamilton, the Kimura or whatever, I saw that, but I haven’t really seen any ground work. I haven’t really watched, I’ve seen that fight and Andrei Arlovski’s fight are what I’ve seen watching him fight.”

“He definitely has the hype behind him. He definitely has the punching power behind him. So, we’ll see on January 20 how things go.”