Daniel Cormier Reveals If He’ll Defend LHW Title Before End Of 2018
Since earlier this month, there has been a lot of speculation whether or not UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier would defend his 205-division belt before he decides to walk away from the sport shortly.
Cormier scored a KO win over Stipe Miocic to win the UFC heavyweight title in the main event of the UFC 226 pay-per-view event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, which marks history as Cormier is now a two-division champion, but now his next fight is up in the air and there’s a good reason for it.
If you recall, following the fight, DC brought in former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, who hasn’t fought in two years, to call him out for his next title defense as the king of the 265-pound division that will likely go down in January of 2019. His latest light heavyweight title defense came this past January when he beat Volkan Ozdemir.
Cormier went on record this week by stating in a behind-the-scenes video shoot with FOX Sports that he plans to defend the title against anyone in the light heavyweight division that the UFC books him against.
“When and where, Corey Anderson,” Cormier told his FOX broadcast partner Michael Bisping on the video (transcript courtesy of MMAFighting). “When and where, (Ilir) Latifi. When and where, Anthony Smith. When and where, all of them. All of them at some point this year.”
“Take a piece of steak, put it in the Octagon,” Cormier said. “Whoever wins gets the title fight. Let’s do it like that. Yes, I am,” said Cormier, who plans on retiring on his 40th birthday next March. “As long as they don’t f*ck up my Lesnar fight.”
With all of that said and in the case that Cormier actually goes through with fighting before January, it’s possible that the promotion books him in October or even November then pushes his fight against Lesnar to February or March. Either way, it would be a big risk by DC.
