With his dominant win over Derrick Lewis at UFC 230 on Saturday night (watch the highlights here), Daniel Cormier is now set to wait for a fight with Brock Lesnar in early 2019. That’s the fight that Lesnar got into the cage at UFC 226 to promote. It’s the fight everyone seems to want. But is it really going to happen? With Brock Lesnar, you never really know.
Brock continues to compete in the WWE, winning back the Universal Championship at the wrestling company’s controversial Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia this weekend. While he has an existing contract with the UFC that dates back to his last MMA fight at UFC 200, no bout agreement has been signed for a specific Cormier vs. Lesnar fight.
“DC” seemed to acknowledge the uncertain future of the fight after his win, sharing his thoughts on Lesnar and alternative opponents should Lesnar not come through.
”That could be the retirement fight for ol’ DC,” Cormier said at the UFC 230 post-fight press conference. “That’s crazy, right? When you start to think about it. Talk about having an opportunity to go out on an all-time high, headlining in Vegas against Brock Lesnar before I turn 40, two weeks before my birthday, have my biggest fight. Yeah, it’s crazy … It looks like March 2, 2019 could be the last time you guys see me fight in the Octagon.”
Cormier revealed that he cuts down to light heavyweight from the same weight he showed up at for UFC 230.
”I will cut the weight if I have to, but that won’t happen for anyone,” he said. “That will only happen if Lesnar isn’t available and I get to fight Jones. That’s the only way.”
”For [Jones] to say, ‘I don’t think he deserves a title shot’ or ‘I’m not gonna grant him,’ who are you to grant me anything?” Cormier asked. “I’m the guy that’s been here this whole time. Three years, I’ve been the light heavyweight champion, because this dude can’t stay out of trouble. That dude actually got in so much s**t that they just said ‘Here, DC, you can have the belt back’ last year after he knocked me out. Like seriously, how crazy must the guy that won be for them to be like ‘Hey man, you can just have this back.’ Seriously.”
That’s bad news for former heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic, who has been chasing a rematch with Cormier since getting knocked out in the first round of their UFC 226 fight. But “DC” opened the door for them to fight again under a specific set of circumstances.
“If Lesnar can’t fight and Jones loses, I’ll fight Stipe,” Cormier said. “If it’s not Lesnar at heavyweight, it’ll be Stipe. He deserves the rematch, I never said he didn’t. And I’ve always said it’ll be him if not Lesnar. I just didn’t want to fight him on three weeks notice, you’ve gotta understand that. I didn’t. We wouldn’t put our best product out there if it was him and I on three weeks. It’s better to have a full camp if we do it again.”