UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier will be moving back up to heavyweight to challenge current titleholder Stipe Miocic. What is not being touched on so much right now is whether or not “DC” would be interested in dropping back down to 205 pounds.
From his end, Cormier admitted that preparing for a heavyweight fight is a lot easier for him. But ultimately, he intends to defend his current title, no matter what the outcome of his fight against Miocic would be.
“If the universal thought was that I was never gonna go back down to this weight class, I would still not have this belt,” Cormier told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani. “We spoke about this for a long time before this decision was made, and I’ve told them that I want to go back to fight at light heavyweight, but you’re right, this training camp has been a lot easier.”
“I’ve been able to eat and work as hard as I’ve wanted to and not feel as depleted,” he continued. “I told this to my wife just yesterday, I go ‘It’s crazy when I look at my food now as opposed to what I eat when I fight at 205, and it’s insane that I can work and do as many workouts as I had to do to fight in this weight class.’”
“It will be daunting; it will be a tough task. But it’s my intention to go back and fight at that weight.”
Cormier has been adamant about ending his storied professional career by March 20th, 2019, the day he turns 40 years old. With that in mind, he believes he can take on two more big fights after facing Miocic.
“I think I can get two more (fights after UFC 226). I can squeeze a couple more, next,” Cormier said. “If I fight July 7th, I bet I can get one around November. And if I get one around November, take a month off in December, I can squeeze one in at the beginning of March.”
“It all kind of depends on the UFC. And Alexander Gustafsson may hate to hear this – too bad Alex,” Cormier said with a laugh. “At some point, I would like to fight Jon Jones again and fight Brock Lesnar. Those are the two ideal end fights, but things don’t always work out perfectly. I feel like that would be perfect.”
“There are gonna be a few guys that are gonna be pissed off about it, but, oh well. They can enjoy fighting each other.”
When asked whom he intends to fight first, Cormier is taking the pressure off him and leaving it up to the two men who are currently dealing with their respective issues with USADA.
“If Lesnar’s back first – well hey, it’s a race, right? Jon and Brock are racing to see who gets back from their suspension first. And then they can fight me,” Cormier said. “Whoever goes before the parole board and gets like a pass will get the fight first.”
Cormier and Miocic will be facing each other in ten days, as they headline UFC 226 on July 7th in Las Vegas. The event will be co-headlined by the featherweight title fight between champion Max Holloway, and undefeated challenger Brian Ortega.
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