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If Daniel Cormier walks away from UFC 252 the heavyweight champion, his coach Javier Mendez thinks the money will be too good for him to pass on a Jones rematch.
Is UFC 252 going to feature the last fight of Daniel Cormier’s career?
Not if Cormier wins, and the UFC is willing to pony up the big bucks for a final showdown with Jon Jones at heavyweight.
That’s according to Cormier’s longtime coach at AKA, Javier Mendez.
“I wanted the last fight to be his last fight, I didn’t want him to fight Stipe [again],” he told ESPN. “I wanted him to just retire, he was on top of the world as far as I’m concerned. But he wanted the fight, he took the fight. Dana, you hear Dana’s talk, ‘I know when someone should retire and that’s not him.’”
“What I think, whoever is victorious from the fight is gonna get offered a big money fight and I believe it’s gonna be against Jon Jones. Because Jon Jones has stressed he wants to go to heavyweight. And what better way for Jones to the kind of money he wants than to fight a Stipe or a DC for the heavyweight title?”
“That would make the fight that Jones would want,” Mendez continued. “Obviously, he deserves more money, he’s a major star, and he’s the most decorated guy really in the light heavyweight division. He’s never been beat, you know? So I think it’s the logical choice.”
Now that the UFC has called Jones’ bluff and refuses to renegotiate with him, he might be excited at the prospect of another Cormier fight pushing everyone back to the bargaining table. But would Daniel Cormier be down for it?
“Yeah, I think Uncle Dana is going to throw so much money at DC, DC can’t pass it up,” Mendez said with a laugh. “DC loves money. So I think that’s going to happen.”
But Cormier has been pretty resolute in his comments leading up to this third bout with Miocic on August 15th.
“Nobody has the ability to train and fight forever, and I know it,” Cormier said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “I can feel it in my preparation now. Some people go, ‘But what if they give you all the money for this?’ And I’m like, if I have to prepare like I’m preparing right now to do that at my age for a sustained period of time would be very difficult. At 36, 37, they could call me five weeks before a fight and go, ‘Are you ready?’ I’m like not now, but I guarantee you I will be in three weeks, and I would go do it. I don’t have that luxury anymore. I need 12 weeks to get myself to where I can do what I need to do to win a fight.”
As Javier Mendez said: there’s a lot of money sitting there waiting for “DC” in a final fight against Jon Jones, and UFC president Dana White doesn’t seem to have the same reservations about cracking open the wallet for Cormier as he does “Bones.” But perhaps this is just wishful thinking from someone who gets a percentage of Cormier’s earnings.
What do you think, Maniacs? How are you reading this situation?