Daniel Cormier is content ending his career without fighting Jon Jones for a third time.
This past weekend (Sat. November 3, 2018) Cormier headlined UFC 230 from Madison Square Garden opposite Derrick Lewis. “DC” successfully defended his heavyweight title with a second-round submission over “The Black Beast.” Now, Cormier is adamant he has only one fight left before officially retiring from mixed martial arts (MMA) competition. That fight will likely be against Brock Lesnar in early 2019.
However, due to the way things went between him and Jones in his last fight, and the personal rivalry between the pair, many find it hard to believe Cormier walks away without taking one last crack at beating “Bones.” Speaking up on “Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show” today, Cormier doubled down that he doesn’t need a third fight with Jones to retire happily:
“You know, yeah,” Cormier said. “That’s it man, that’s it. I don’t need it anymore. Sometimes you need things and sometimes you don’t. I just don’t understand – I don’t understand the logic of ‘I need anyone’ anymore. I don’t.
“I’ve come to terms with everything. Like I said, Ariel, because he was gone so much, I had to remove myself from the situation so completely, that it almost became not reality. Now I would truly have to retrain my mind to understand that he’s even back in the game.”
Jones will make his Octagon return next month (Sat. December 29, 2018) to headline UFC 232 from Las Vegas. He will rematch Alexander Gustafsson after their initial 205-pound title bout back in 2013.
Cormier is currently the UFC’s heavyweight and light heavyweight champion. However, upon the start of Jones vs. Gustafsson II, Cormier will be stripped of the 205-pound title. The winner of Jones and Gustafsson will be the new light heavyweight champion.
It’s Just Never Easy
The champ champ could conceivably wait and fight Jones a third time. But he isn’t convinced Jones will be able to stay active, because there’s always been some sort of problem. And he’s right:
“And the reality is, can I really trust that he’s truly going to be back in the game? Because history shows that there will probably be some sort of issue. Either before the Gustafsson fight or after the Gustafsson fight. And if not for the Gustafsson fight, we schedule a fight, and there’s definitely going to be an issue! Because there’s always been an issue.”
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