Daniel Cormier went from being the best heavyweight outside of the UFC to being the best light heavyweight in the UFC and then to being the best heavyweight in the UFC. The man truly has done it all and he says he only has one fight left in him before he finally retires but the question is who that will be.
His ideal opponent would be current heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic to close out their trilogy but it is unclear if that’s going to happen because from all accounts Stipe hasn’t made a real effort to try and schedule his next fight. The champion is a first responder, a fire fighter and no one has an issue with that but he’s also the heavyweight champion of the biggest mixed martial arts organization in the entire world. Get active or get out as Dana White once said.
The next contender in line has to be heavy hitter Francis Ngannou after his quick and brutal knockout of Jairzinho Rozenstruik on Saturday night at UFC 249. The UFC has a problem because Francis could be the future of the heavyweight division and Daniel has stated he only has one flight left. Do they allow Daniel a rematch with Miocic to get the title and then retire or do they let Ngannou fight for the title and let the chips fall where they may?
There is a less popular third option.
There has been some speculation about Dana stripping Stipe of his belt if he doesn’t come to the table soon which would mean that Cormier would probably fight Francis if they asked him to. The only caveat is that it has to be for the undisputed championship because with one fight left in him he doesn’t want to be wasted on an interim championship. Then again, he isn’t sure if he wants to fight Ngannou…
Daniel talked at length recently about who he would like to face next, when, and he broke down the current state of the heavyweight championship picture. He also had good things to say about Francis and discussed the specifics of his UFC 249 performance.
Check it out.