Karl Williams uniquely challenged Stipe Miocic to a cookout following his victory over Justin Tafa at UFC on ESPN 53.
Williams dominated Tafa on the ground for three rounds to cruise to a unanimous decision win on Saturday. Williams used his Octagon interview to issue a one-of-a-kind challenge to former heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic for a barbecue cookout.
“I wanna call out if I can, Stipe Miocic. He works at the firehouse and he said he’s gonna be barbecuing,” Williams said. “He’s working on learning how to barbecue, so this summer let’s do a charity cookout if he’s not busy, you know. He’s an important man. But if you got some time, your firehouse against me and my crew at a charity barbecue [to] help firefighters. So that’s my biggest thing.”
A barbecue enthusiast himself, Williams later explained that the idea of a cookout occurred to him when Miocic got talking about barbecuing with his team of firefighters. Williams had a firefighter neighbor who was injured on the job, inspiring a potential charity cookout event for firefighters. Williams also extended his callout to all UFC fighters, including Alexander Volkanovski, whose cooking style he admittedly doesn’t like.
“I talked to Stipe a while ago and he was telling me about the firehouse,” Williams said at his post-fight press conference (video via MMAjunkie.com). “I had a neighbor – we ended up moving neighborhoods – but I had a neighbor, he was a firefighter, got injured on the job cleaning the fire truck. And you know Stipe’s a firefighter and also at the [UFC Performance Institute] he was talking about learning how to barbecue and how all the guys at his firehouse barbecues and different stuff. So I was like, you know what, it’ll be a good charity for his cause.
“Anybody in the UFC… I don’t call people out for fights and stuff but barbecuing on a fence building, I’m calling you out. So anybody wanna challenge me in the barbecue, I see Volk out there cooking steaks, I don’t like how he’s cooking but anybody want a barbecue, we’ll do a challenge out here, International Fight Week or something, set up the grill, have the people decide. I’m just here to fight and have fun and cook.”
While Williams used to prefer barbecuing with sauce in his younger days, he now prefers a rub. Williams also has to be careful with his drinking-to-barbecuing ratio as he risks downing a 24-pack of beer if he is doing a brisket.
“I was a sauce guy when I was young and immature, but now that I’m grown and sophisticated, I’m more of a rub guy,” he said.
“My go-to, I do pork belly bites, then I do my ribs, for the cookouts for people I do leg quarters, cook some steaks. I haven’t had the time to do a brisket. I gotta get my drinking-to-cooking ratio down set. Because right now I’m only on the ribs portion of the levelling it out. So if I start doing brisket, I don’t know it’s gonna turn out to a 12-pack or 24-pack.”
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