While Patrick Cummins is scheduled to meet former title challenger Glover Teixeira in his next Octagon outing, the light-heavyweight is already planning his path to a title shot.
The 34-year-old Cummins holds a 8-2 professional record (4-2 in the UFC) and is coming off a TKO victory against Rafael Cavalcante at UFC 190. If he beats Teixeira on November 7th, he plans to call out champ Daniel Cormier for a rematch of their UFC 170 bout.
“Yeah that would definitely be my callout,” Cummins told Submission Radio. “Yeah I just feel like I’m a handful for anybody in three rounds. I think people will look at me, anyone in the light heavyweight division kind of looks at me like ‘I don’t want to deal with that dude for three rounds, like that’s just kind of tortuous’. But let’s add two more rounds to that and I feel like not many people can hang with my pace and the way I push things and just kind of making it miserable. I feel like that’s kinda my ace in the hole. “
Cummins faced Cormier in February 2014 as a late replacement signing for Rashad Evans. He was 4-0 at the time and lost the fight by first-round TKO.
“So obviously I’ve watched the tape, I’ve seen what I did wrong, I’d change a couple things around, but yeah I think that pace and just that mentality of ‘okay man, you’re stuck in here with 25 minutes with me and I’m gonna push you hard’. So that’s my best attribute apparently. And I got a pretty face. (laughs)”
When asked whether he considers Cormier the champion since he never defeated Jones to claim the top spot, Cummins defended Cormier and said that the argument against him being the “real” champion was invalid. In fact, he believes Cormier would have a better shot at beating Jones in a rematch.
“I definitely think DC’s chances will definitely get a little better in the next fight. Jon Jones has been out for a long time, you know, there’s a lot of pressure on him, and I don’t think DC was the same fighter that he usually is in that fight. I think something was going on. He didn’t look the same, and maybe that’s just Jon Jones shutting him down on every possible moment, but I tend to think there was something else going on there. So I think it’s kinda a toss-up. But I think Daniel’s chances go way up if there’s a rematch.”
About the author
