Just a couple of days after Dana White dropped the suggestion to fans that UFC heavyweight Fabricio Werdum was gunning after Daniel Cormier, DC himself has said that he’s down for the fight. Speaking to MMA Junkie, Cormier said he’s ready t…
Just a couple of days after Dana White dropped the suggestion to fans that UFC heavyweight Fabricio Werdum was gunning after Daniel Cormier, DC himself has said that he’s down for the fight.
Speaking to MMA Junkie, Cormier said he’s ready to fight anyone available in the 260 pound division, making a particular mention of Werdum, before he considers moving down a division.
On Thursday, during a UFC 162 pre-fight media scrum, White was asked whether rumours of a Werdum/Cormier fight were true. The UFC president replied (h/t Bloody Elbow):
“Werdum was in my office two days ago… That’s probably where the rumour came from. That’s who he wants to fight, but we’ll see what happens.”
“Why not? … Well, he asked to fight me. Someone said Dana [discussed it] in his scrum this week… I just need a date and know when I’m fighting.”
Cormier and Werdum are both ranked No. 3 and No. 4 in the UFC rankings, respectively. Sitting at the top with the belt is Cain Velasquez, Cormier’s teammate and training partner at American Kickboxing Academy.
Cormier, who’s had a meteoric rise in the sport since his debut in 2009, has maintained that he would never fight Velasquez, which leaves the obvious option of him dropping down to 205 pounds to take on light heavyweight kingpin Jon Jones instead.
Indeed, DC said that he intends to drop down to 205 pounds eventually after having one more fight at 260 pounds, especially if the prospect of fighting Jones for the title is on the line.
“It’s not about [Jones]; it’s about me trying to be the champion and without fighting Cain Velasquez,” said Cormier. “But if the champion is still Jon—and I don’t see anyone actually beating him—then why not test yourself against the best in the world?”
Earlier, there was talk of Cormier facing heavy-hitting heavyweight Roy Nelson. However, after Nelson lost a unanimous decision to StipeMiocic at UFC 161 in June, there seems to be less interest in that fight.
Werdum, on the other hand, has been charging up the UFC rankings since his return to the promotion in 2012; going on a three-fight winning streak capped with a sublime submission victory over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira last month.
Cormier has an even more impressive record, having gone undefeated as a pro in 12 fights with his last victory coming against Frank Mir in April.
Both men are still unbooked for fights, and for Werdum, fighting Cormier would be the catalyst he would need to almost automatically guarantee a title shot. That could be a rematch against Junior Dos Santos, should he win against Velasquez later this year, or a first time contest against Velasquez himself.
For Cormier, a win could be the perfect set up for him to drop down a division and take on Jones for the belt.
Fresh off a win over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in June, Fabricio Werdum was contemplating sitting and waiting for a chance at the UFC heavyweight gold, but he’s tired of being on the sidelines. Werdum made a convincing case that he should be near a titl…
Fresh off a win over Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in June, Fabricio Werdum was contemplating sitting and waiting for a chance at the UFC heavyweight gold, but he’s tired of being on the sidelines.
Werdum made a convincing case that he should be near a title shot when he submitted Nogueira in the headline bout of UFC on Fuel 10, marking his third win in a row since returning to the UFC in 2012.
The only problem for Werdum is that he sat out for almost a year waiting for the Nogueira bout because the two fighters served as coaches on Ultimate Fighter Brasil season 2.In addition to that, the next heavyweight title fight between Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos is already set for October.
That means Werdum would probably end up sitting out for another eight or nine months at least by the time he could even potentially get a title shot.Plus the UFC hasn’t even named him as the clear-cut choice as No. 1 contender.
So instead of sitting out and watching the division move on without him, Werdum recently met with UFC president Dana White to discuss his options.
In that meeting, Werdum had one name on his mind for who he wanted to face later this year inside the Octagon—former Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix winner Daniel Cormier.
“Werdum was in my office two days ago, that’s probably where the rumor came from. That’s who he wants to fight,” White answered on Thursday when asked about a potential fight against Cormier.“So we’ll see what happens.”
Cormier is currently in the process of cutting weight to eventually make it down to light heavyweight, but in the interim he wants to stay busy and take another fight in the heavyweight division.
There may not be a bigger fight amongst the contenders right now than Cormier against Werdum.
A former two-time Olympian, Cormier is still undefeated in his MMA career.He made his UFC debut earlier this year when he picked up a unanimous decision victory over former heavyweight champion Frank Mir at UFC on Fox 7 in April.
White made it clear that Werdum asked for the fight, but as of yet there has been no official word if the promotion is interested in making it happen.
Currently, neither fighter has anything scheduled, and a showdown between Cormier and Werdum could be a perfect co-main event for the UFC 166 card that will be headlined by the heavyweight title bout between Velasquez and Dos Santos.
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted
(If this is a bad time, Mike, we can come back later | Photo via CombatLifestyle)
We just read a Q&A between the Las Vegas Sun and strength, conditioning, and diet specialist Mike Dolce — he prefers the term “performance coach” — and you should too. Dolce has worked with some of the biggest names in MMA in recent years, helping them get healthy and, notably, drop tons of weight before fights.
In the interview, Dolce discusses up-and-coming clients of his, who he thinks will become world champions next, his toughest projects ever, what his plan for Daniel Cormier is, and more. Check out some highlights below and then head over to the Sun to read the rest.
Chael was 233 pounds six weeks before the Michael Bisping fight. To go from 233 to 185 in six weeks is insane. The hardest issue — I would have to say Rampage is the hardest I’ve ever had to deal with. Not because he was the biggest or heaviest because he wasn’t. I helped Duane Ludwig lose 42 pounds in 13 days to fight Jim Miller on short notice here in Las Vegas. He went from 198 to 156 in 13 days with my coaching. It took eight weeks to do the same with Quinton.
Now it was so much easier with Duane because Duane is a professional; he’s a good guy with a big heart. He just got down to the business of working with no complaints, no objections, no obstacles. Some of these other guys, Rampage being one of them, everything was a challenge. He’s shown that not just with myself but with every business deal he’s ever been in.
On what made Jackson such a “challenging” client before his 2010 fight against Rashad Evans:
(If this is a bad time, Mike, we can come back later | Photo via CombatLifestyle)
We just read a Q&A between the Las Vegas Sun and strength, conditioning, and diet specialist Mike Dolce — he prefers the term “performance coach” — and you should too. Dolce has worked with some of the biggest names in MMA in recent years, helping them get healthy and, notably, drop tons of weight before fights.
In the interview, Dolce discusses up-and-coming clients of his, who he thinks will become world champions next, his toughest projects ever, what his plan for Daniel Cormier is, and more. Check out some highlights below and then head over to the Sun to read the rest.
Chael was 233 pounds six weeks before the Michael Bisping fight. To go from 233 to 185 in six weeks is insane. The hardest issue — I would have to say Rampage is the hardest I’ve ever had to deal with. Not because he was the biggest or heaviest because he wasn’t. I helped Duane Ludwig lose 42 pounds in 13 days to fight Jim Miller on short notice here in Las Vegas. He went from 198 to 156 in 13 days with my coaching. It took eight weeks to do the same with Quinton.
Now it was so much easier with Duane because Duane is a professional; he’s a good guy with a big heart. He just got down to the business of working with no complaints, no objections, no obstacles. Some of these other guys, Rampage being one of them, everything was a challenge. He’s shown that not just with myself but with every business deal he’s ever been in.
On what made Jackson such a “challenging” client before his 2010 fight against Rashad Evans:
He had taken 14 months off to film “The A-Team” and “The Ultimate Fighter.” He came into camp 51 pounds overweight before the fight — seven weeks and six days before the fight.
We weren’t behind schedule, but we weren’t ahead of schedule. But I worry. I wasn’t satisfied with it. I talked to Quinton and he said, “I’m not cheating. I’m not doing anything wrong.”
A day does by and we go to train. It’s a three-story house and Quinton lives on the top floor. He forgets his gym bag, so I say I’ll go up there and get his gym bag. I go up and look and I see something that doesn’t look right inside his pillow — a purple box, or a square. I say, “What the hell is that?” I walk over and see it’s a candy bar, a Cadbury fruit and nut candy bar. There were four of them. Under the bed there were more wrappers. So what he was doing was, we would go and get gas before the gym. We’d sit in the car and fill it up. He’d go in to pay for the gas and the window would be right there, right below window level was the candy rack. He’d buy a bunch of these candy bars and put them in his pocket and go home and eat them.
I caught it and he turned it into a joke. So I say, “What we’re going to do is compromise: You’ve got a chocolate thing. I get it. I understand it. Therefore, I’ve got a healthy alternative to it.” In that area in England, the healthiest thing I could find was Nutella, which is really not that bad considering the alternative. It’s a mental thing, not a physical thing, so I start making him Nutella sandwiches, telling him, “It’s the best thing in the world — toasted, warm, crunchy and with banana slices. It’s delicious. That’s what we’ll have if you train your (butt) off. You’ll get those as a reward system.” We started to do that and the weight dropped immediately.
On his approach for Daniel Cormier:
What we’re doing with Daniel is just getting him healthy. My job is to get him down to 10 percent body fat with as much muscle mass as we can pack on his body. Once he’s there, we can decide whatever weight class he wants to go to. My job is to keep him healthy, fit, teach him how to eat and take care of himself. Whether he fights at 205 or not, I mean we could do it this Friday. That’s just what I do. I’ve gotten phone calls where guys are 30 pounds overweight a few days beforehand and we can do it. So we could do 205 or we could stay at heavyweight and go out and destroy everyone at that weight, too. It’s up to Daniel. I’m just happy to be involved because he’s a stud.
Jesus Christ, it hasn’t even been 24 hours since a notable MMA figure said something unbelievably stupid. Yet here we are again. This time the culprit is Roy Nelson, who called fellow UFC heavyweight Daniel Cormier an “Uncle Tom” during an interview with Ariel Helwani. As BloodyElbow summarizes:
Ariel brought up Daniel Cormier’s recent statements that he wants to kick Nelson’s ass in part “for Dana White.” Nelson went a bizarre direction with his response, stating “Having a lot of black friends. They would say that would be more of an Uncle Tom move.”
Pushed to expand on what made it an “Uncle Tom move,” Nelson laughed and said “That’s what my friends were saying. And I was just like ‘wow!’ Hey it is what it is. You gotta do what you can do for the boss.”
Wow, indeed. While I’m not one to try to rank the degrees of horribleness between different ways of denigrating an entire people…yeah, this is probably the worst thing that’s been uttered this week by pretty much any public figure in American sports. And Nelson — who is managed by Mike Kogan‘s RealTalk Entertainment, by the way — has no lackof competition.
If you’re unaware of what the phrase “Uncle Tom” means and what the implications of its use are, go ahead and brush up on that. Of course, this isn’t the first instance of “Uncle Tom” being used in pugilistic trash talk — Muhammad Ali famously taunted Joe Frazier with the epithet during their rivalry. Afterwards, Frazier would take pride in his contributions to Ali’s physical and mental decline. So despite the fact that Ali had “a lot of black friends” himself, even he couldn’t get away with it.
Jesus Christ, it hasn’t even been 24 hours since a notable MMA figure said something unbelievably stupid. Yet here we are again. This time the culprit is Roy Nelson, who called fellow UFC heavyweight Daniel Cormier an “Uncle Tom” during an interview with Ariel Helwani. As BloodyElbow summarizes:
Ariel brought up Daniel Cormier’s recent statements that he wants to kick Nelson’s ass in part “for Dana White.” Nelson went a bizarre direction with his response, stating “Having a lot of black friends. They would say that would be more of an Uncle Tom move.”
Pushed to expand on what made it an “Uncle Tom move,” Nelson laughed and said “That’s what my friends were saying. And I was just like ‘wow!’ Hey it is what it is. You gotta do what you can do for the boss.”
Wow, indeed. While I’m not one to try to rank the degrees of horribleness between different ways of denigrating an entire people…yeah, this is probably the worst thing that’s been uttered this week by pretty much any public figure in American sports. And Nelson — who is managed by Mike Kogan‘s RealTalk Entertainment, by the way — has no lackof competition.
If you’re unaware of what the phrase “Uncle Tom” means and what the implications of its use are, go ahead and brush up on that. Of course, this isn’t the first instance of “Uncle Tom” being used in pugilistic trash talk — Muhammad Ali famously taunted Joe Frazier with the epithet during their rivalry. Afterwards, Frazier would take pride in his contributions to Ali’s physical and mental decline. So despite the fact that Ali had “a lot of black friends” himself, even he couldn’t get away with it.
I doubt Roy Nelson has any idea what it was he actually said. And I doubt Daniel Cormier is going to take as much offense as Joe Frazier did. But this is entirely unacceptable. Nelson should expect to be hit hard by the UFC for this, maybe with the hardest punishment the promotion has ever handed down. I’m not so sure this is necessarily a fireable offense, or at least I don’t believe it should be, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it becomes one. Nelson’s contract is expiring soon and he’s never been Dana White’s favorite employee. If anything, he’s the perfect candidate for the UFC to make an example of if it wants to claim its personal conduct policy has some serious teeth.
Then again, maybe they’ll keep him around for one more fight. I bet Cormier wouldn’t mind.
It’s been a minute since Daniel Cormier made his successful UFC debut with a unanimous decision win over former champ Frank Mir. This week, DC engaged in the personal fan press conference exercise that is the UFC Fan Club Q&A when he fielded questions from folks in Las Vegas to see UFC 160.
During the Q&A, Cormier discusses dissapointing himself in the Mir fight, UFC jitters, teammate Luke Rockhold‘s recent loss, facing Jon Jones, Anderson Silva and what changes he’s planning to make in his lifestyle in order to one day fight at 205 pounds. It’s an at-length, fun and sometimes intimate session with “DC” so enjoy.
It’s been a minute since Daniel Cormier made his successful UFC debut with a unanimous decision win over former champ Frank Mir. This week, DC engaged in the personal fan press conference exercise that is the UFC Fan Club Q&A when he fielded questions from folks in Las Vegas to see UFC 160.
During the Q&A, Cormier discusses dissapointing himself in the Mir fight, UFC jitters, teammate Luke Rockhold‘s recent loss, facing Jon Jones, Anderson Silva and what changes he’s planning to make in his lifestyle in order to one day fight at 205 pounds. It’s an at-length, fun and sometimes intimate session with “DC” so enjoy.
(Man, the Jack Links people are gonna be pissed when they realize their mascot is jumping ship for Subway.)
Alright, so we all know that Daniel Cormieris fat. And, of course, we all also know that fat people are what Roy Nelson eats for his three squares each day. Preferably after they’ve been dipped in a vat of sausage gravy and deep fried.
The guy’s big.
As such, fans and fighters alike have often wondered aloud if the two would be better suited at a lighter weight class – say, light heavyweight. However, both guys continue to kick ass at heavyweight, which kinda makes it hard to say that they should feel a sense of urgency to drop a weight class (except, you know, so as not to die in ten years from a heart attack, Roy).
Nelson is coming off a knockout of professional Greek Statue Model, Cheick Kongo, and Cormier just dominated his second former UFC heavyweight champion. There has been talk of the two facing each other next. But there’s also been talk, mainly from Dana White, that Cormier could get an automatic shot at champion Jon Jones should he choose to drop down to 205lbs.
At first, it seemed liked both Nelson and Cormier were down to face one another, but then “Big Country’s” manager made him look like a chicken — a succulent, golden-fried chicken — by nixing the proposed matchup. Fortunately, Nelson spoke with Bloody Elbow recently and cleared things up once and for all. We guess.
As far Daniel [Cormier], I think the reason Mike, my manager, said anything about Daniel is because he’s supposed be getting an immediate title shot at 205. If he’s going down to 205, it doesn’t really make any sense to fight him, unless we’re going to fight for a 205 contendership. Then hey, we can do that, too.
(Man, the Jack Links people are gonna be pissed when they realize their mascot is jumping ship for Subway.)
Alright, so we all know that Daniel Cormieris fat. And, of course, we all also know that fat people are what Roy Nelson eats for his three squares each day. Preferably after they’ve been dipped in a vat of sausage gravy and deep fried.
The guy’s big.
As such, fans and fighters alike have often wondered aloud if the two would be better suited at a lighter weight class – say, light heavyweight. However, both guys continue to kick ass at heavyweight, which kinda makes it hard to say that they should feel a sense of urgency to drop a weight class (except, you know, so as not to die in ten years from a heart attack, Roy).
Nelson is coming off a knockout of professional Greek Statue Model, Cheick Kongo, and Cormier just dominated his second former UFC heavyweight champion. There has been talk of the two facing each other next. But there’s also been talk, mainly from Dana White, that Cormier could get an automatic shot at champion Jon Jones should he choose to drop down to 205lbs.
At first, it seemed liked both Nelson and Cormier were down to face one another, but then “Big Country’s” manager made him look like a chicken – a succulent, golden-fried chicken — by nixing the proposed matchup. Fortunately, Nelson spoke with Bloody Elbow recently and cleared things up once and for all. We guess.
As far Daniel [Cormier], I think the reason Mike, my manager, said anything about Daniel is because he’s supposed be getting an immediate title shot at 205. If he’s going down to 205, it doesn’t really make any sense to fight him, unless we’re going to fight for a 205 contendership. Then hey, we can do that, too.
What do you think, taters? Are we getting further into the danger zone here trying to decide who gets to be the number one contender in the light heavyweight division? First, Dan Henderson gets the shot after an amazing effort against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua that he actually should not have won. Then, Machida somehow gets back in the picture despite getting choked out by the champion in less than two rounds and turning down the rematch on short notice. Then it’s Chael Sonnen for some reason, then it’s that Swedish guy…uh…I think Guto Inocente was in the mix at one point…
And now, we have two chubby heavyweights possibly vying for the right to fight for the title of a weight class no one knows for certain they are interested (or even able to compete) in. Bull Mountain, don’t go changin’ on me!
