Flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko has often mesmerized people with how many languages she can speak, a total of four, to be exact. However, she’s not the only one with a big library of languages. However, former 2-time heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic, who is butting heads against Jon Jones at UFC 309, is a bilingual individual himself.

The 42-year-old heavyweight great is gearing up for what many believe could very be the end of his time in the UFC, or as many would say, a curtain call. There’s no doubt that his absence will leave a significant void in the division. However, Stipe Miocic hasn’t really given any definitive indication about hanging up his gloves. If he does, let’s take a look at some aspects of ‘Stone Cold’ Miocic’s personal life, especially his bilingual nature.

How many languages does Stipe Miocic speak?

Stipe Miocic was born in the Ohioan city of Euclid, and yes, it’s named after the Greek Mathematician. It’s more of a suburb of Cleveland where the former UFC champion grew up, so he speaks English, which is his native tongue. However, that’s not the case for his parents. Miocic’s mother and father were immigrants from the Central-Southeastern part of Europe, Croatia.

Most believe that because he has Croatian parents, the language will come easily to Stipe Miocic. Well, that is not quite the case with the former champion, since he’s still learning to be fluent in Croatian because he loves his Croatian heritage.

“Being Croatian’s amazing. We’re warriors. We’re just like Cleveland people, hard-nosed, hard-working,” Stipe Miocic told ‘WKYC’. With that said, let’s move over to explore a bit about his Croatian roots.

More about Stipe Miocic’s Croatian roots and nationality

Stipe Miocic flaunts his Croatian roots wherever he goes. In fact, the former 2-time champion has even trained with another Croatian champion legend, Mirko Crop Cop, in the past. His parents are from there, though; they never had the chance to take their son to their motherland as Miocic witnessed his parents’ separation when he was pretty young. But it was not until he trained with the aforementioned legend back in 2015 that he got the taste of Croatia, especially the capital of Zagreb.

During his maiden visit, Stipe Miocic also took the chance to go and meet his Croatian relatives for the first time while accompanied by his father, Bojan., who, at that time, had been living in Austria. “I was born and raised in America and my roots are from Croatia, and I am very proud. I know I have the support from all of my fans, from America and Croatia,” Miocic once wrote about his roots on social media.

At UFC 309, Stipe Miocic will have both sets of fans rooting – the Croatians and the Americans – for him to get himself in the annals of UFC history by becoming a three-time champion, and who can forget? He can also be the first to hand ‘Bones’ his first clean MMA defeat. However, it is going to be a steep hill to climb because Jones wants to make a statement himself as well.