First of all, a healthy Cain is Stipe’s biggest threat to the title, and is the fight I think that most of us would like to see next. But the notion that Stipe needs to beat Cain to become UFC heavyweight GOAT is false, and is actually the other way around. Looking at their records and some simple numbers show that while they’re close, Stipe is clearly already ahead of Cain as far as UFC resume:
Cain Velasquez (14-2)
UFC record: 12-2
Title fights: 6
Title fight record: 4-2
Title defenses: 2
Top 5 wins: 5 (Antonio Nogueira, Brock Lesnar, Junior Dos Santos x2, Antonio Silva)
Stipe Miocic (18-2)
UFC record: 12-2
Title fights: 4
Title fight Record: 4-0
Title defenses: 3
Top 5 wins: 6 (Mark Hunt, Andrei Arlovski, Fabricio Werdum, Allistair Overeem, JDS, Francis Ngannou
Common opponents:
Fabricio Werdum- Stipe 1-0, Cain 0-1
Junior Dos Santos- Cain 2-1, Stipe 1-1
So in short Stipe has more top 5 wins, a perfect record in championship fights, and has more title defenses than Cain. Also, Stipe has a bigger advantage in diversity of opponents (Cain fought the same two guys defending), as well as Stipe staying fairly active and healthy. So imo, it is Cain who is the one who has to come back healthy and beat Miocic if he ever wants his Goat label back.