Since there has been a lot of talk recently as Tom has been voicing his displeasure with Stipe refusing to fight him, I decided to check into some things and found some interesting facts that put into perspective just how long Stipe has been inactive.

So, since the last time Stipe Miocic fought:

1.) Francis Ngannou defended his title against Gane, had major knee surgery, sat out over a year, signed with a different promotion, boxed Tyson Fury, and will now box AJ.

2.) Derrick Lewis fought 7 times. Kevin Holland fought 9 times.

3.) Alex Pereira made his UFC debut, won a belt, lost the belt, changed divisions, and won a belt again.

4.) Gregor Gillespie fought.

And finally, Stipe’s last win was August 15,2020 (1,255 days ago). At that time, the following fighters had not yet made their UFC debut:

Alex Periera, Jailton Almeida, Shavkat Rakhmanov, Benoit Saint Denis, Ian Garry..

Jiri Prochazka and Tom Aspinall made their debut the month before Stipe’s last win.

As of now, we know that Stipe declined to fight Tom at UFC 300 in April. Jones is out for several more months, at minimum, so it seems as if Stipe will end up getting his title fight in the summer, at the soonest.

At that point, he will be over 4 years without a win and will have one of the longest periods of inactivity prior to a title shot in the history of the UFC. What is everyone’s opinion on how this should be handled by the UFC?

Edit: As brought up in the comments, the following fighters have more recent wins than Stipe:

Khabib, Rumble Johnson, Fedor, Brian Ortega, Gregor Gillespie, Kevin Lee, TJ Dillishaw, Uriah Hall