Stipe Miocic pokes Daniel Cormier in the eye. Photo / Screengrab
Stipe Miocic pokes Daniel Cormier in the eye. Photo / Screengrab
The greatest heavyweight in the history of the UFC has been decided.
Heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic has cemented his legacy as the greatest of all time as he blunted legend Daniel Cormier and defended his crown again in a crazy trilogy decider.
In a rollercoaster war that went right to the bell, Miocic emerged with a unanimous decision win.
Miocic claimed a 2-1 advantage in the trilogy on the back of a unanimous 49-46, 49-46, 48-47 scorecard.
After repeatedly declaring the trilogy fight would be his final fight before walking into retirement, Cormier left it all out there in the brutal five-round brawl.
He now walks into retirement as one of the greatest of all time — but he walks with a final defeat hanging over his shoulders.
There was an early warning for Cormier in the first round when he appeared to accidentally poke Miocic in the eye as the Croatian fired through with a jab — the third time Cormier has executed an accidental eye poke in the history of their rivalry.
Cormier appeared to get the better of the early exchanges, almost dropping Miocic with a standing elbow, while the champion also landed some punishing body shots.
In a close second round both fighters landed clean jabs with Cormier unloading with some wild punches that only just missed the mark.
Miocic closed out the round with a flush jab that rocked Cormier and dropped him to the ground with just 10 seconds left in the round. With Cormier falling away from a lighter jab, Miocic landed a bruising hook that caught Cormier on the chin.
The former Olympic wrestler was fortunate to survive to the bell but walked out for the start of the third round clearly hurting.
There was more drama in the third round when Cormier suffered an eye poke with just seconds before the bell as he retreated.
Replays showed Miocic's fingers appeared to go deep into Cormier's eye socket.
Cormier returned for the fourth round with a badly swollen left eye.
He told his corner between rounds: "I can't see".
Referee Mark Goddard did not even stop the fight to give Cormier a breather, telling the fighters he didn't see the poke.
It emerged after the fight that Cormier was taken to hospital to have his eye looked at.
The action reached insane levels in the fifth round as both fighters were forced to eat heavy shots while struggling to stay on their feet from exhaustion.
Cormier simply couldn't land the damaging shots needed to sway the judges in the later rounds forced to fight more than 10 minutes with just one eye working.
A deflated and devastated Cormier after the fight stressed how important the eye poke was in deciding the fight, bringing it up without even being asked when interviewed by ESPN.
"I can't see. Look at my eye," Cormier said.
"I couldn't even f***ing see. I couldn't see the rest of the fight."
"Look at my eye. I can't see anything out of my left eye, it's black. It doesn't matter.
"This just sucks. Being on the losing end of two big fights and trilogies it's a very sad position to be in."
