Daniel Cormier and Frank Mir both want to do battle, they just differ on the date to wage war. On Saturday night after he finished out his Strikeforce contract, Cormier proposed a UFC on FOX 7 matchup in San Jose, California, where he trains as a member of American Kickboxing Academy. That makes sense for him, but Mir’s side seems to want more neutral territory.
According to Mir’s manager Malki Kawa, they would prefer to stage the fight in April in New Jersey, at UFC 159.
“On the same card as Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen, sounds like a good co-main event to me,” Kawa said.
The dates are just one week apart — UFC on FOX 7 comes first on April 20 while UFC 159 takes place seven days later — so at least the duo is close to synchronizing their timelines after other issues torpedoed the original fight dates between them.
The bout has been targeted since mid-2012, first falling through due to a Mir knee injury in a development that caused the cancellation of a planned Nov. 3 Strikeforce event. It was then hoped that Mir would be ready in time to fight Cormier in last Saturday night’s Strikeforce grand finale, but as it turned out, he was not cleared to train for a fight until early January, making that an impossibility.
Now healthy, an April date is no obstacle and the fight that’s been rumored for months seems a strong probability of finding a place on the UFC calendar. Even if the date is in dispute, Mir is ready to accept Cormier’s challenge and welcome him to the octagon.
“Absolutely, we want it,” Kawa said. “We’re looking for that matchup. We definitely want the Cormier fight.”