Stipe Miocic was born on the 19th of August, 1982 in Euclid, Ohio to parents Kathy and Bojan Miocic. His parents are Croatian immigrants and while he was still a child, his parents got separated.
He was raised by his mother, with the help of his grandparents. Under their guardianship, he attended Eastlake North High School where he competed in various sports such as football, baseball, and wrestling.
He excelled at every single sport he competed at in high school and earned a sports scholarship to Cleveland State University. He also spent some time at Trevecca Nazarene University, where he graduated from, with a degree in Marking and Communications.
While he was at Trevecca, his continued excellence in sports, particularly in baseball attracted interest from teams in the MLB but he decided to pursue a career as a mixed martial arts fighter instead, having begun life in the sport in 2005 as a training partner for Dan Bobish.
Although Stipe Miocic spent the early days of his MMA life switching between boxing and mixed martial arts, he showcased a raw and natural talent for the sport to become a professional MMA fighter after just eight months of training.
His first fight as an MMA fighter was won via knockout and he won his next five fights the same way, quickly developing a reputation in the circuit as a skilled fighter, including winning the Heavyweight Championship of the NAAFS, the MMA promotion he initially fought for.
Having announced his name as a fighter, he was signed up by the UFC in June 2011 and he made his UFC debut in October 2011. Although it wasn’t a knockout, he won his first fight against Joey Beltran.
Since he won his first fight, Stipe Miocic has fought 20 more times in the UFC and has won 18 of them, winning 14 matches via knockout.
During the course of what has been a marvelous streak, Stipe Miocic climbed to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion and has managed to defend his title three times, before losing it to Daniel Cormier in a rare loss in July 2018.
Apart from his UFC career, Stipe Miocic is also a firefighter in Oakwood and Valley View, Ohio. He considers it a possible career path after his retirement from MMA.
