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UFC 241 Embedded: Vlog Series – Episode 1

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The road to UFC 241 starts with a heavyweight champion working out underwater.

The first episode of UFC 241 Embedded: Vlog Series dropped on August 12, 2019, opening the fight-week countdown to Saturday’s pay-per-view at the Honda Center in Anaheim. The episode splits its time between heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier and the man he dethroned, Stipe Miocic, as they finish preparations for their rematch, with a detour to co-main event feature fighter Anthony “Showtime” Pettis as he gets ready for Nate Diaz’s long-awaited return to the Octagon.

• Daniel Cormier takes his heavyweight title-defense camp outdoors, mixing an “al fresco” training session with underwater conditioning work built to sharpen his endurance for five rounds with Miocic.
• Stipe Miocic discusses the 13 months since his first-round knockout loss to Cormier at UFC 226 in July 2018, framing the layoff as a chance to reinvent himself physically and lean into fatherhood with his daughter.
• Anthony Pettis, fighting his second bout at 170 pounds after knocking out Stephen Thompson, sharpens his striking ahead of facing Nate Diaz, who is stepping back into the cage for the first time in nearly three years.

Cormier’s Unconventional Camp

The reigning heavyweight champion has never been shy about mixing up his training methods, and Episode 1 shows exactly why. Cormier takes his work outside for an al fresco session before heading into the pool for underwater conditioning drills designed to build the kind of gas tank that carried him through five rounds with Miocic at UFC 226. It’s the same kind of grinding, hour-after-hour approach to fitness that shows up in training-vlog staples like WORKING OUT FOR 24 HOURS STRAIGHT!!, where the whole point is proving the body can outlast the moment. For a 40-year-old champion defending his title, that endurance work matters as much as anything he does on the mats.

Miocic’s Long Road Back

Miocic’s half of the episode is the more reflective one. He hasn’t fought since Cormier caught him with a first-round knockout at UFC 226 in July 2018, and the 13-month gap gave him something most champions never get: time. He talks about using the layoff to rebuild himself physically and to be present for his daughter, framing the break less as a setback and more as a reset before he tries to reclaim the belt he once held.

Thirteen months removed from a first-round knockout, Miocic frames the rematch as a fighter who used his time away to reinvent himself, not just heal from it.

Pettis Sharpens Up for Diaz’s Return

Anthony Pettis is fighting his second bout since moving up to welterweight, having stopped Stephen Thompson in his debut at 170 pounds. Episode 1 shows him locked in on his striking, working to keep his knockout power sharp ahead of a co-main event assignment that comes with its own weight: Nate Diaz hasn’t fought since 2016, and his return to the Octagon after nearly three years away is one of the loudest storylines on the entire card.

An All-Access First Look

As the opening chapter of a series that will run daily through fight week, Episode 1 sets the format other UFC 241 vlogs will follow — training footage, media obligations, and the personal details fighters don’t usually show on a broadcast. It’s a numbered-episode approach not unlike the first installment of a long-form video log such as 100 Hours In Minecraft Hardcore: Episode 1, where the opening entry lays the groundwork for everything that follows.

The next Embedded episode picks up with weight cuts getting real and fight week rolling toward Saturday, when Cormier and Miocic finally settle their rematch and Pettis finds out just how much Nate Diaz has left after three years on the shelf.