Daniel Cormier responds to Stipe Miocic’s eye poke concerns: “I’m not doing it on purpose”

Daniel Cormier makes it clear he is not trying to poke Stipe Miocic in the eye on purpose.

In their first fight, Cormier got the KO win shortly after a break due to an eye poke. And, in the second bout, there was a couple of eye pokes as well. So, many fans have called him a dirty fighter and Miocic already said he will tell the ref to watch out for them.

“You know, if it wasn’t intentional, it wasn’t intentional. He said it wasn’t so I guess that I believe him, we’ll see what happens in the next fight here in about two and a half weeks,” Miocic said. “But you know, I’m just going to try and keep my calm and not get poked in the eye. Yes [It is something I’ll bring up to the ref]. Watch out for the eye pokes. Yes pretty much, plain and simple.”

Now, Daniel Cormier responded to that saying he doesn’t poke Miocic in the eye on purpose. Instead, it is a habit he has from sparring with boxing gloves and has tried to correct it.

The former two-weight champion also makes it clear, he is not a dirty fighter.

“The reality is I know I’m not doing it to the guy on purpose. I have been trying to fix it. Part of the reason why it was happening, I’m not as tall as these guys,” Daniel Cormier said on DC & Helwani. “So when I’m sparring these big guys sometimes I’ll flick out my hand because I’m wearing a 16-ounce glove and I’ll kind of hit them but it is almost like slapping them. But, then, when you do that with the four-ounce gloves, to extend yourself, there are no finger covers. So, it kind of sucks all of a sudden, I’m this dirty fighter. That is not the case.”

Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic have their trilogy fight at UFC 252 on August 15. It is a scrap many fans are looking forward to, where some think the winner will go down as the greatest heavyweight of all-time.

What do you make of Daniel Cormier’s response to Stipe Miocic’s eye poke concerns?