Daniel Cormier became the champ champ at UFC 226 on Saturday night, defeating heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic via KO in Round 1. At the post-fight press conference, DC explained how he did it.

When we fight a guy we like to get his timing, so that’s what I was doing, said Cormier, as transcribed by Peter Carroll for MMA Fighting. I was seeing how he hit and seeing how fast he was and everything. He took me down and he was trying to hit me when I got back up. It all hurts, Stipe is a big, strong guy, he’s a great champion, but it wasn’t anything abnormal. I was like, ‘He hits hard, but not abnormally hard.’ When I figured that out and I got a little bit of his timing, I figured that it wouldn’t be one punch that kind of slept me.

I could start to march forward and try get in the clinch. That’s what I started doing and I started to have success there; hitting him with the jab and hitting him with a couple of right hands.

Early in the fight, we got into a clinch position and you guys know one of my favorite positions is a collar tie and uppercuts. I’m sure [Miocic] planned for that, but Rosendo [Sanchez, boxing coach] and I have been working on going collar tie, uppercut, and then following it with a right hook. After the first one, I think [Miocic] tried to block the first uppercut but then the right hook was coming and it landed beautifully.

Cormier is defending the heavyweight belt vs. Brock Lesnar early next year and said he also hopes for a fight in November, which would presumably be a light heavyweight title defense. Then he retires, as one of the best ever.