Daniel Cormier May Defend Light Heavyweight Title Before Fighting Brock Lesnar
Daniel Cormier headlined UFC 226 and defeated Stipe Miocic to win the UFC Heavyweight Title, becoming just one of two fighters to hold a pair of belts simultaneously in the organization.
The new heavyweight champion is expected to face Brock Lesnar in the future, but he may defend the UFC Light Heavyweight Title first.
“I’m going to take some time, first. I’m going to go spend some time with my wife Selena and my kids and we’re able to do something and hang out a little bit, and we’ll decide,” Cormier said at the UFC 226 post-fight press conference. “But I’m at a point now where it’s going to be very difficult to fight a Curtis Blaydes or a — I don’t even know who’s coming up at 205, to be honest with you; I don’t really know who. Maybe Gustafsson fights well in August, but last time Gustafsson and I fought, we made no money. He’s got all these fans, but nobody buys pay-per-views. So it’s weird, do you want to go to war and make so much less money? I fight Brock Lesnar, I’m getting paid. So I want to fight fights that make sense, so this guy’s going to have to do something very special to earn a fight for the 205-pound belt and I’ll do it. I’ll go down and fight and wait for Brock. So I’ll fight again around November, I can fight again around March and be done.”
Cormier last defended the light heavyweight title at UFC 220, defeating Volkan Oezdemir by second round TKO.
Despite the loss to Jon Jones, one thing DC believes is that becoming a two division champion has made him one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time.
“Look, this tonight, for everyone that said you’re a fake champion, you can’t question this one,” Cormier said. “You may question that light heavyweight title, you can question it to the grave, but I have something completely separate from [Jones] and I’m very grateful for it. Because everything was tied to that guy. No matter how much I beat everybody up, it was always, ‘Well, he lost to Jones.’ Now, in this heavyweight division, a division that I never got to complete my journey in, I went and I completed it and I became the champ. So I’m a champion. I am one of the greatest fighters of all-time, and I love DJ, and I love GSP, and it’s going to be one of the three of us.”
Lesnar has to go through six months of USADA drug testing before he can fight again, which means a potential bout with Cormier couldn’t happen until 2019 at best.
