UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier is already planning on potentially not fighting UFC prospect Volkan Oezdemir.
It’s well known by now that Oezdemir was arrested and charged with felony battery in Florida as a result of a bar fight in August where Oezdemir allegedly hit an individual. Oezdemir was released on $10,000 bond.
This comes at a bad time for Oezdemir due to the fact that he looked like he was going to get the next crack at Cormier for the UFC title. The promotion was targeting the bout for UFC 220 in January.
With Oezdemir’s pending legal issues, that fight is in jeopardy of not happening. Cormier has made it clear that he doesn’t plan on waiting around for this fight to happen.
The UFC champion recently appeared on The Anik & Florian Podcast (transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting) and stated that if the UFC prospect cannot take the fight due to his legal troubles then he would gladly fight Alexander Gustafsson or Ovince Saint Preux next.
“Of course, I’d fight any of these guys. It doesn’t matter. This guy’s on the longest win streak in the division so he was getting the title shot but if this trouble is gonna keep him out of the opportunity, I’ll just go to the next guy. So of course I’d fight Gustafsson and someone told me yesterday that Team Ovince Saint Preux was like, ‘We want a title fight because we’ve got a good winning streak too.’ Whoever is winning gets the title shot, that’s just the way it is. I don’t care who it is.”
Cormier originally lost the title to Jon Jones at UFC 214 this past July. However, once news broke that Jones failed a USADA test then “DC” was reinstated as champion.
Since then, he was calling for Oezdemir as the next challenger for his title due to the fact that it would be something different compared to face Gustafsson again.
“It’s tough to be going through this type of thing, especially at this time when you’re on the cusp of your biggest moment of your career. I don’t know what happened. You’ve got to not be doing things that are wrong or put yourself in these situations where stuff can go sideways. You’ve got to try to stay out of those positions.
“Maybe it was self-defense but because he is who is is, it’s much worse because he has the ability to sleep dudes that are trying to hit him. You never know what’s happening but even these run-ins, they’re really unneeded, especially when you’re a young guy as Volkan is and you’re on the cusp of something so big for the first time in your career.”
As of this writing, there’s no clear direction in regards to what will happen next but with Oezdemir potentially facing jail time, there’s a good chance that the promotion will not go with the planned title fight in January.
Thus, this leaves Gustafsson as the front-runner for the next title shot. The promotion might book the fight at UFC 220 in Boston as Cormier went on record by stating that he would like to fight at this event.
“I’ve been waiting for the final go ahead. Obviously, this throws a wrench into those plans, when we see what happens to Oezdemir. It’s kind of all fluid right now because we’ve got to see what happens with this guy. Alexander Gustafsson was never gonna be right now anyway, I think he may be dealing with some things. If it has to be him then I guess the fight will be a little bit later in the year, but I’d love to compete in Boston.”
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