Yesterday, Dana White indicated that Daniel Cormier would be awarded a title shot at light-heavyweight after Alexander Gustafsson gets his turn.
Current champion Jon Jones suggested at the weekend that Cormier should fight Gustafsson next to establish a definitive No.1 contender, but that doesn’t align with the UFC’s current thinking.
White made it clear at the post-fight press conference on Saturday night that Gustafsson will fight the winner of Jones Vs Glover Teixeira which takes place in April, and now he’s filled in the blanks on what comes next for Cormier too.
“U will see him against the winner of Jones/Glover vs Gus,” White told a fan on Twitter.
If that did prove to be the case then it means Cormier could be on the sidelines waiting for his opportunity until late in the year which isn’t ideal.
It would appear that Cormier is less than enthused by the idea too, as he’s gone on record as saying that he’d rather fight again rather than hang about waiting.
“I don’t see the point in sitting out for, I mean, this is going to be a long time,” Cormier told MMAJunkie.com. “If I was going to sit there and wait, I could potentially be 36 years old by the time I fight. Why would I waste a whole year of my career? I don’t have that luxury.”
Taking on another fight does seem to make the most sense. While Cormier does have big wins over Frank Mir and Roy Nelson at heavyweight in the UFC, he’s only fought once in the light-heavyweight division and that was against an unheralded, short notice opponent in Pat Cummins who lasted only 79 seconds.
It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to take a long layoff from that and then jump into a fight with Jones, plus it would be unfair to the fighters like Rashad Evans and Phil Davis who’re currently ranked higher than Cormier in the division.
So, there’s a good chance that Cormier will go on to fight one of those two aforementioned opponents, or perhaps another current top 10 contender like the winner of the Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua Vs Dan Henderson rematch which takes place later this month.
