Daniel Cormier Shares Why He Chose To Call Teammate Khabib’s Upcoming Title Defense At UFC 254

Former two-division UFC champion Daniel Cormier spoke at the UFC 254 media day sharing more details about his decision to call his teammate Khabib Nurmagomedov‘s title defense at UFC 254.

“I’ve always said no to calling my teammates fights,” DC said. “As I move into this second phase of my life, its my job and it wasn’t a decision made on a whim, It was a lot of people asking can Daniel do this job. And for me, I’ve called Islam Machachev fights, I’ve called Deron Winn fights and I feel like I stayed down the middle as best as I could so I figured I could do it. It’s tough because Khabib’s been there for eight years now at AKA and we’ve seen him rise from the very beginning but I’ve got a job to do and that’s what I’ll have to do on Saturday.”

DC continued sharing that in his eyes this fight is different from other fights Khabib may have and it weighs a lot on who his opponent is.

“Certain guys if he fought I couldn’t do the job but I respect Justin so tremendously that I can do the job with him fighting Justin because I feel so, I like Justin so much It’s hard to do it for someone that you know. To call Khabib and Conor with all the bad blood I couldn’t have done that because you’re so solely in your guy’s corner but Justin’s a good guy.”

Khabib Nurmagomedov will face Justin Gaethje in the main event of UFC 254, a fight that many see as Nurmagomedov’s toughest test in the division, Cormier echoes this opinion.

“I believe he is the toughest challenge for Khabib, for a long time we thought Tony Ferguson was the guy that would give him the most trouble if there was trouble to be had, but then obviously Justin Gaethje beat Tony. The guy that showed up there in May, I just watched, I watched the most dangerous guy for Khabib.”

When breaking down what makes Gaethje so dangerous DC highlighted his confidence and his self belief as his most dangerous trait.