Daniel Cormier Reveals When He’ll Fight Next

Daniel Cormier appears to have an idea of not only who he’d like to fight next, but an idea of when he’d like that fight to take place as well.

“I’m going to fight Volkan,” Cormier told MMAjunkie Radio. “I went to the doctor, and he advised me to take the rest of the year off because I started to contemplate fighting at the end of the December.

“(I’ll fight him) beginning of next year sometime.”

Cormier, the undisputed light heavyweight champion, is coming off of a third-round knockout loss to Jon Jones in their rematch at UFC 214 this past July. After it was made clear that Jones had failed a drug test, however, “DC” was reinstated as the 205-pound champion.

As far as Jones goes, Cormier admitted that he was ‘pissed off’ about the situation:

“Obviously, we should let due process play itself out and everything,” he said. “I worry about the human factor, because he is a father, too, and has a family. But there’s a part of me that’s still pissed off. Obviously, how do you not be pissed off when something like that happens and you feel like, ‘Man, did I really get a fair shake?’”

Despite the fact that the playing field may not have necessarily been even, Cormier, as a competitor, considers the fight a loss on his record:

“He won the fight,” Cormier said. “That’s me, the competitor. Fighters come up to me and say, ‘No, you didn’t (lose the belt).’ (UFC lightweight) Beneil Dariush was like, mad. He was like, ‘I’m so mad that you had to accept the belt back. That’s stupid. You never lost it if you didn’t get a fair shake.’ He’s like, ‘Why are you down on yourself?’ But everybody doesn’t look at competition like I do.

“For me, I lost the fight. I was there. July 29, he beat me. They can say whatever they want to say, but I lost. That’s just who I am.”

With Jones’ future unclear, the UFC has a few options that could serve as Cormier’s next challenge. Alexander Gustafsson is one, but Oezdemir is certainly deserving as well. In 2017 alone, “No Time” has won three consecutive bouts, with two of those victories coming in fights that he finished in less that a minute.

Would you like to see Oezdemir get his shot against Cormier?