Daniel Cormier No Longer Interested In Heavyweight Return
UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier is going to be defending the gold against Volkan Oezdemir in the co-main event of UFC 220.
DC had once expressed an interest in maybe returning to heavyweight, but has since changed his mind on the potential move.
“It was a different time in the sport,” Cormier said on Outside The Cage. “Those guys, they weren’t as fast. They’re big now, and fast. Before you guys that were big guys, but they were kind of lumbering. Now you got athletes. Like Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou — they’re athletes. They’re all like Cain Velasquez. That’s what made Cain Velasquez so great, right? Was that he was before his time. They’re all like him now. So, those days are past.”
Cormier had achieved a lot of success during his time at heavyweight, including winning the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix.
Former UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez is a longtime training partner of DC’s, who DC wants to see face the winner of the UFC 220 main event between UFC Heavyweight Champion Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou.
“I would love for that fight to happen,” Cormier said. “You know, Cain to fight one of those guys. It would be very difficult for him to just step back into a title shot being that he’s been gone so long. But, enough fans ask for it? He’ll do it. Dude loves to fight. He wants to fight, he’s just been injured. But if he has one fight, he’ll beat whoever it is and then he’ll fight one of those guys. Which would be great; I’d love it.”
UFC 220 takes place on Saturday, January 20 from the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts with Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
