LAS VEGAS – Stipe Miocic showed nothing but class after losing his heavyweight title to Daniel Cormier in Saturday’s UFC 226 headliner.

Miocic’s (18-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC) historic title reign came to a halt when he suffered a first-round knockout loss to Cormier (21-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) at UFC 226, which aired on pay-per-view from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Although it clearly wasn’t the outcome he anticipated, Miocic took his mind off the loss in the immediate aftermath of the bout and focused on the bigger things in life, including the impending birth of his daughter.

“I lost, plain and simple,” Miocic told reporters, including MMAjunkie, during UFC 226’s post-event press conference. “There are no excuses. He was the better man tonight. … It sucks. Losing’s not fun at all. It sucks. But to put this in perspective, I look at it, and I’m going home right now. My beautiful wife is having my child. There are better things in life than losing.

“It sucks. I want to come back and get a rematch of course, but listen, right now, it’s ‘DC’s’ day. Good for him.”

After finding some early success in the heavily promoted super fight, Cormier connected with a huge shot from inside the clinch and dropped Miocic. A few follow-up shots ended it, and despite feeling he was winning up to that point, Miocic understands such an outcome is part of the cruel nature of the sport.

“I think I was winning that fight,” he said. “I was wearing him down, held him against the cage. I was hitting him with some good shots. It was going back and forth, I was backing him up a lot more and he caught me with a right hand. It was a good shot. What are you going to do? It’s part of the game. Heavyweights. I say it all the time.”

When asked what the future could hold, Miocic said that’s far from his mind. The 35-year-old intends to take some time off and celebrate the arrival of a new family member, and but he’ll then focus on his fighting future.

“I’m going to go home,” Miocic said. “That’s all I care about right now. Listen, I know what you guys want to hear what’s next? Of course I want a rematch. There’s no question, but right now, I’ve got bigger fish to fry.

“I’ve got my daughter on the way. That’s a battle I’ve got to win.”

For complete coverage of UFC 226, check out the UFC Events section of the site.