Daniel Cormier was supposed to partake in the final fight of his career before his 40th birthday this March. Well, that is no longer going to happen. Both Cormier and his head coach Javier Mendez have said his retirement will be delayed.
Now, the question is, how many fights does Cormier have left, and who will his next opponent be? He definitely has options, whether it’s a fight with Brock Lesnar, a rematch against Stipe Miocic, or a trilogy fight with Jon Jones. But if Mendez has any say in the matter, it probably won’t be a Miocic rematch.
“Stipe’s waiting and I don’t know why he’s waiting,” Mendez said recently on BJPENN Radio. “I think he should fight like everybody else does. When you get starched like he did, most people, they don’t wait for a rematch, they fight somebody else and get back on the wagon. What happened to Cain with dos Santos? Cain didn’t wait for a rematch. He went out there and beat up whoever they asked him to beat up and he got back to the title shot. That’s what you should be doing instead of saying, ‘I’m waiting.’ Unless it was a fight fight, but things happen. People want to see entertaining fights and if you have a wipe-out then people don’t necessarily want to see a rematch.”
If Javier Mendez has his choice, Daniel Cormier will fight Brock Lesnar in his next and final fight. That said, Mendez knows that might be a bit of a long shot.
“I want it to be Brock and then he should be done, that’s what I want,” he said. “I’ve always wanted that. Every time you guys ask me I want him to fight Brock Lesnar, make the biggest payday that he deserves and then retire like he wants to. All his coaches want that for him, we don’t want him to fight past Brock. Brock is not on the table yet, but hopefully, if we keep pushing for it maybe it’ll happen. I don’t know.”
For now, Daniel Cormier is waiting for his next opponent and healing up a few injuries. The hope is he can get back into the Octagon soon for possibly his last fight.
Who do you want Cormier to fight next?
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 3/3/2019