UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier has planned out his future after UFC 226. His ideal situation would be to fight Brock Lesnar and Jon Jones, before riding off into the sunset by his 40th birthday on March 20th, 2019.
Chael Sonnen, however, sees things a bit differently. Based on his own speculation, the Bellator heavyweight fighter sees Cormier cutting his career short, especially if he ends up losing to Stipe Miocic at UFC 226.
“I’m not sure we see Daniel Cormier fight again,” Sonnen said on his very own Beyond the Fight podcast. “Interesting plot twist I just threw in there, isn’t it?”
“So, he’s moved up to heavyweight. Let’s say he succeeds and he wins, he would then be the heavyweight champion. I suspect that he would relinquish 205 pounds. So, if he wins and he’s the heavyweight champion, I think that he would stick around and get that other fight in that he’s been talking about he wants, whoever that would be against.”
Sonnen does not see Cormier dropping back down to light heavyweight with a loss to Miocic, pointing out the “significant” weight issues when cutting down to 205 pounds, such as the towel controversy during the UFC 210 weigh-ins in April 2017. Cormier himself did admit that he is currently enjoying his training camp at heavyweight, not watching his diet too much and not feeling depleted by the weight cut.
Apart from this issue, Sonnen does not think there are exciting fights for Cormier to take at light heavyweight, given the uncertainty of Jones’ career.
“(There are) not a lot of compelling fights for him at 205 pounds,” Sonnen said. “That could change overnight with the insertion of Jon Jones, but I don’t think Jon’s gonna be back until next summer. That’s a year away.”
“To get to 205 pounds, you had to live a lifestyle with that goal in mind, and you gotta take your eye off the ball for seven months and go up to heavyweight, I don’t know about returning to 205. And I don’t know what the motivation would be.”
Cormier and Miocic will headline UFC 226 this Saturday, July 7th in Las Vegas for International Fight Week.
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