In the lead-up to his UFC 226 heavyweight title super fight with Stipe Miocic, reigning UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier has stated repeatedly that he hopes to retire quite soon. By March 20, 2019, to be exact, when he turns 40 years old.
“Come March [of this year], I will have 12 months, at max, left,” Cormier said on a January episode of The MMA Hour. “I’m going to be done by Mar. 20, 2019. I won’t be fighting again.”
“I’m going to be done at 40,” He said. “I won’t be back. There won’t be jumping around or, ‘I’m done until I get the right type of fight.’ It’ll be over. I’m not going to be doing this anymore. I’ve said time and time again that I’ve lived a great life in sports. I’ve loved every moment of it. My family has revolved around sports. Not only my family – [my wife] Selena and the kids – but also my mom and my dad.”
Apparently, Cormier’s still plans to retire by 40. In fact, he only wants to fight twice more after UFC 226, and he’s got specific opponents in mind for those last two fights: Brock Lesnar and Jon Jones.
Cormier laid out his plans on the inaugural episode Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show.
#HelwaniShow
Daniel Cormier tells @arielhelwani following his fight with Stipe Miocic at UFC 226, he can squeeze in two more fights before retirement. Ideally would like those final fights to be against Jon Jones and Brock Lesnar.— Chamatkar Sandhu (@SandhuMMA) June 25, 2018
Interestingly, Cormier’s desired opponents Jones and Lesnar have recently been linked to a fight with each other.
“I know that Brock’s WWE deal is up at the end of the summer, I think,” UFC President Dana White recently told TMZ. “I know he wants to fight so I’m sure we’ll end up getting that figured out.”
“There are a lot of options [for Lesnar],” he continued. “Jon Jones is very interested in Brock Lesnar and Brock Lesnar is very interested in Jon Jones.”
It’s conceivable that, if this Jon Jones vs. Brock Lesnar fight happens, the winner could then collide with the Daniel Cormier vs. Stipe Miocic winner sometime thereafter. In this era of big-money super fights, such a thing would certainly seem to be the UFC’s cup of tea.
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 6/25/2018.