‘DC’ recognized one of his strategies being used by a current UFC champion this past weekend in Sydney.
Daniel Cormier is one of the greatest fighters that we have seen step inside the Octagon but during his time at light heavyweight, his success was always compared to his great rival, Jon Jones. The former champ-champ now works as a key part of the commentary booth.
He was on the call for UFC 312 on Sunday afternoon at the Qudos Bank Arena, and following the conclusion of the main event where Dricus du Plessis successfully defended the middleweight title against Sean Strickland, ‘Stillknocks’ named the challenge that he wants next.
The South African called out the UFC’s light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira who was in Strickland’s corner rather than mentioning the name of the consensus next in line, Khamzat Chimaev.
Daniel Cormier reflects on when he tried to push for a fight with Jimi Manuwa over the Jon Jones rematch
In a recent episode of ESPN MMA’s Good Guy/Bad Guy, Daniel Cormier spoke about Dricus Du Plessis’ decision to push for the Alex Pereira fight over the most logical next step for him.
‘DC’ told Chael Sonnen that it reminded him of when he did a similar thing following his light heavyweight title defense over Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson at UFC 210.
Despite knowing that Jon Jones was in attendance at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, Cormier chose to direct his attention towards Jimi Manuwa who despite being on a run of back-to-back knockout wins, would seemingly be an easier challenge for him to overcome.
“The moment Rogan goes, I yell at Jimi Manuwa,” he explained. “I yell at Jimi Manuwa. Jimi Manuwa has won three fights in a row, people are excited about him. I know that I’m smashing Jimi Manuwa and Jimi Manuwa is inside the corral. Off to the left is Jon Jones, he’s behind the fighter deal.
“I tried to no-sell him because I knew that dude, Jon Jones, was going to be much tougher than Jimi Manuwa. I was like should we get another title defense, I’m trying to get another title defense but that’s exactly what I felt Dricus did.”
Cormier went on to clarify that he isn’t saying that Du Plessis is trying to avoid Khamzat Chimaev. In his case, the Manuwa fight didn’t materialize and ‘DC’ went on to face Jones in their highly anticipated UFC 214 rematch.
“Fighters know. It’s not that you think you’re going to lose, it’s like I know it’s a harder night at the office. Go fight Jones? Or try to fight Jimi Manuwa? To me it made sense as a businessman so I tried to no sell Jones and then Rogan asked me about him anyways.”
Dricus Du Plessis is trying to capitalize on the moment
As Daniel Cormier said, Dricus Du Plessis pushing for the Alex Pereira fight isn’t because he doesn’t think that he can beat Khamzat Chimaev but on paper, ‘Poatan’ is likely a better stylistic matchup for him.
There’s also the element that the South African won’t be able to go up and instantly challenge Pereira for the light heavyweight title if he is no longer the 185lb titleholder. This means that whether he’s confident or not of beating Chimaev, it’s a risk that could deny him a huge opportunity to define his legacy.
It does appear that the Chimaev fight will be next for ‘Stillknocks’ but if he’s able to overcome the undefeated challenger, perhaps then he will get his chance to move up a division.