Daniel Cormier Will Defend Light Heavyweight Title Ahead Of Brock Lesnar Fight
The only current simultaneous two-weight UFC champion Daniel Cormier reiterated his plans of defending his title at 205 pounds, even if it meant a difficult weight cut now that he's a heavyweight champion as well.
Cormier created history last month when he defeated Stipe Miocic via knockout to win the heavyweight title and become just the second person in UFC history after Conor McGregor to hold two belts at the same time.
And in an appearance on the "Live with Kelly and Ryan" show on Monday morning, he reflected on what it meant to have two titles.
"Legacy. It means legacy," Cormier said. "You know, I'm 39 years old so for a long time, I thought about being remembered as one of the greats, and by doing this, I'm always going to be remembered as my career ends."
If "DC" secured his legacy, he will now secure the biggest payday of his career as he will be defending his heavyweight title against Brock Lesnar next. The fight won't happen until early 2019 at least, however, as Lesnar still has to serve under the United States Anti-Doping Association (USADA) testing pool until January as a result of his failed drug tests from 2016.
And with Cormier planning to retire in March when he turns 40, it ideally should be his last fight. However, he claimed last month that he would be open to dropping down to light heavyweight to defend his title, sometime in November, provided it's the right fight.
Cormier particularly earmarked Alexander Gustafsson, who he beat via split decision in October 2015, as a light heavyweight he could face provided the latter did something special earlier this month at UFC 227 against Volkan Oezdemir.
However, Oezdemir withdrew before Gustafsson pulled out from the card due to injury, and with no other standout light heavyweight contender, it seems unlikely Cormier will fight in that weight class again.
Regardless, he once again revealed his plans of dropping down while waiting for the Lesnar fight.
"For me to go back down, it's going to be difficult but I plan on doing it," he added before talking about the weight cut. "... Honestly I am a heavyweight. I weight 245 pounds normally but then I cut down to 205 whenever I fight 205, so I lose 40 pounds to fight in that weight class."
Regardless of Cormier's intentions, the Lesnar fight should ideally be next for him. Firstly, the 39-year-old revealed he still had a broken hand suffered in the fight against Miocic. Second, there is no fight at light heavyweight that will bring him a big payday, especially with the absence of Jon Jones.
And with Lesnar currently off WWE storylines to focus on his UFC comeback and reports stating that he could return for Wrestlemania which takes place April 7, the sooner the fight takes place in 2019, the better.
Meanwhile, Cormier also emulated the finishing sequence of his win over Miocic during his appearance on the show:
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