Daniel Cormier appears to have removed any doubt about whether he may yet be tempted back into the Octagon again by taking steps to cement his retirement.
“Dana White says Daniel Cormier informed the UFC today to remove him from the USADA testing pool and to remove him from the rankings to make his retirement official,” MMAfighting’s Damon Martin has reported.
Cormier had stated earlier in the week that it was his intention to now hang up his gloves, accepting that at 41-years-old he’s no longer able to compete at quite the same level he did at his peak, even though he still feels that on a different night he could have bested Miocic.
“I’m not going to fight anymore,” Cormier said on his ESPN show. “I was talking to Joe Rogan after the fight, and I told him my interest is fighting for championships, and I can’t imagine with a loss that I’d be fighting for a belt again. I lost two fights in a row for the first time in my career. You’ve got to understand when it’s time, and the reality is part of the reason I got hit with that right hand by Stipe is because I’m older. You can’t fight father time.
“At 41 years old, I fought the heavyweight champion of the world three rounds to two with the idea that I wanted to win. I didn’t go in there trying to give a good account of myself. I wanted to win the fight and I still believe I can beat Stipe Miocic. But every day that passes, it doesn’t work in my favor.”
Cormier also likened his situation to that of Robbie Lawler, another veteran campaigner who recently lost a fight to Neil Magny that DC believes a younger version of ‘Ruthless’ would have won handily.
“All these young guys, they just continue to improve and they continue to train and get better and they stay younger – they stay a lot younger. Even when Jones and I fought the first time. I was 35 years old. He was maybe 26, 25, something like that. Those guys are still young. Everyday that goes by, my time just gets a little bit more in the rearview. I’m not going to be fighting anymore.
“It makes me sad to see guys like Robbie Lawler last weekend fighting guys that years ago, for as talented as Neil Magny is, I don’t feel like that would have been as hard a fight for Robbie back in the day. Robbie today, gets beat 30-26 by Neil Magny fighting in the co-main event of a Fight Night card from those classic fights that he had with Rory [MacDonald]. That sucks. He’s only 38. I am not saying Robbie Lawler should not be fighting, but at 41, what am I going to do next? Just go fight some random dude? Go be fodder for somebody to build their name off of, I don’t need that.”
Still, Cormier said he accepts that on the night, Miocic was the better fighter in their trilogy encounter and he’s now made peace with the fact that it’s time to step back from competing and focus on his commentary duties for the UFC instead.
“I feel like I’m closing the door shut on this thing – it’s over. And I’m not sad about it. I’m not sad. I’m going to miss it. I’m going to miss the training camps. I’m going to miss the fights. There’s nothing like a fight week, but you have to understand when it’s your time. I feel like it’s time.”
