As if fighting some of the most dangerous heavyweight athletes isn’t grueling enough, Stipe Miocic pursues a career as a firefighter simultaneously. That’s ample evidence to suggest how tough the former 2-time heavyweight champion is. With three title defenses in his wake, ‘Stone Cold’ earned the reputation of being the ‘greatest UFC heavyweight ever’. At UFC 309, Stipe Miocic has the chance to make history once again with a possible win against Jon Jones.

Stipe Miocic’s resume screams legendary as he took on top heavyweights, including Daniel Cormier, Junior dos Santos, and Alistair Overeem, beating them either through finishes or hard-fought decision victories. To add to his legendary status, he’s one of the two UFC fighters to have handed ‘The Predator’ Francis Ngannou a loss in MMA. Joey Diaz famously tipped his hat to Stipe Miocic’s ‘immigrant mentality’, alluding to his mild-mannered, yet stoic demeanor on JRE. So where is the Ohio-native actually from? Let’s take a closer look.

Where is Stipe Miocic from? What is his place of birth?

Stipe Miocic grew up in the United States, in a Cleveland suburb named Euclid, named after the famous Greek mathematician. He’s American by nationality owing to his birth, but his ethnicity has roots in Eastern Europe. To be exact, Miocic is of Croatian heritage since his mother and father migrated to America, but there’s no concrete evidence to ascertain when they made that shift.

Growing up, there was no doubt that Stipe Miocic had the sporting bug in him since he dipped his hands in more than one sport during his formative years. In high school, Miocic played football and wrestled. In college, he played baseball and expanded on his wrestling credentials by competing in the NCAA Division-I category at Cleveland State University. Before his professional MMA career, Stipe Miocic even competed in boxing and won the Golden Gloves championship in 2005. It’s no wonder that he’s the man with the most knockouts in heavyweight title fights.

Apart from being a professional fighter and a firefighter, Stipe Miocic is also a family man with a wife and two kids. As an American citizen, and decorated UFC champion, ‘Stone Cold’ can attribute a big chunk of his success to his parents who moved from Eastern Europe to give him the best possible life.

More about Stipe Miocic’s early life and parents

Stipe Miocic’s parents, Kathy and Bojan Miocic, welcomed their UFC star child in 1982 after moving to the States, with hopes of giving their child the ‘American Dream’. While his parents were from Rtina and Cetingrad in Croatia, they could never take the time to introduce him to his motherland, due to their separation when he was really young. As a result of this, Miocic can’t converse in Croatian, although he claims to understand the language and is making efforts to increase his fluency.

However, things would soon change as he grew up to be an internationally recognized UFC fighter, with a chance to train with another Croatian legend, Mirko Cro Cop. When he visited the legend back in 2015, Stipe Miocic experienced what his motherland was like for the first time. He was joined by his father, who had been living in Austria, to meet his relatives whom he had never got to meet as a result of growing up in the US. In November 2022, Stipe Miocic lost his father to cancer.

Stipe Miocic is greatly proud of his roots and where he grew up, and proudly represents both. What did you think about Stipe Miocic’s backstory? Does it add a layer of intrigue to his legendary status? Let us know in the comments below.