In roughly 3 1⁄ 2 months, UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic will take on light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier in the UFC 226 main event. It’s a champ vs. champ showdown that will either see Cormier become a two-division titlist, or Miocic extend his own heavyweight title defense record to four.

There are admittedly not many viable title challengers for Miocic in his own division, which is part of the reason the Cormier matchup has high intrigue and was booked in the first place. One man who has risen up the ranks quickly is Curtis Blaydes, who is coming off a big win over Mark Hunt at UFC 221. In an interview with Submission Radio, Blaydes gave his take on Stipe-DC, and why he believes Miocic will get the job done on July 7th.

“It is a tough one,” Blaydes said. “This is another great match-up. Daniel Cormier, who is I think undefeated as a heavyweight, to put him against, as you said, possibly the greatest heavyweight champion we’ve had, I think it’s a great match-up. I’m going with Stipe. I think it’s going to be a banger. I think it’s going to be five rounds, just like Jon Jones’ last (fight), not his last one against DC but their first fight against each other. I think it’s gonna go like that. They’re both gonna get rocked, they’re both gonna get taken down, they’re both gonna get cut and have bruises and what not, but I think Stipe’s length and his boxing (will be too much). “

The 27-year-old Blaydes revealed his experiences training with Miocic, and had some interesting insights on both the wrestling and striking battles they had when sparring with each other.

“I actually trained with him a couple of years ago, I wrestled with him,” Bl And I’m not gonna toot my own horn, but I think I’m one of the better wrestlers overall regardless of the weight class in the UFC right now, and his wrestling is legit. He is very good.

“On the feet he destroyed me. I was an amateur, this is back in 2013. I’m one of those guys, I’m not gonna lie to you when someone is better. Like, he was leaps and bounds better than me. He was supposed to be, like, at the time he was going up against Gabriel Gonzaga. So yeah, it would have been weird if they brought me in there and I just started picking him apart. That probably would have been a problem for Stipe. No, he handled me like he was supposed to. But when we wrestled, like I said, pretty back and forth. He would go, (in) I guess an hour practice, he would get two takedowns, I would get two takedowns, or maybe he would get one more, maybe I would get one more.”

As for Blaydes, he has his own big fight coming up on June 9th in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois, as he’ll be facing Alistair Overeem at UFC 225. That fight represents the last on his UFC contract, although if he re-signs, you would figure that a win over Overeem puts him in prime position for a title shot.