Daniel Cormier thinks there is a battle going on to headline the UFC MSG card.
The sport of MMA was legalized in New York State back in 2015. Since then the UFC has been holding an event in the most historic arena in the world, Madison Square Garden. Every year the UFC travels to New York City in November to put on one of the biggest fight cards of the year. This card usually features some of the biggest fighters on the UFC roster. Previously these Madison Square Garden events have been headlined by the likes of Israel Adesanya, Kamaru Usman, Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz, Jorge Masvidal, and more. This year there seems to be a battle between two of the biggest stars in the UFC on who gets this event.
Conor McGregor will be facing Michael Chandler later this year although no date has been set, now another former champion Daniel Cormier is hearing that McGregor wants the Madison Square Garden card. Also, Jon Jones has been asking for that event to be the host of his retirement fight against Miocic. Cormier believes there is not enough room on this billing for both of these big stars and then somebody will have to pick a different day.
Daniel Cormier does not see both Conor McGregor and Jon Jones on the same card
Daniel Cormier took to his YouTube channel to speak a little bit about this topic. He heard rumors that both McGregor and Jones want to headline the Madison Square Garden card however he feels neither would be willing to give up the main event slot for the other.
“I’m hearing Conor McGregor, and Michael Chandler is being looked at for New York City,” he said. “We were supposed to get Jones/Miocic in July, then we heard that they were targeting November. So it raises two questions. One, do we get a fight night where Jones and McGregor are both fighting and if they are, who walks to the Octagon last? You would think the heavyweight champion the world does, but you got the mega-star in Conor McGregor, after The Ultimate Fighter. So that would be something that would have to be worked on. I don’t know if you could ever really do that because I don’t know if these two guys would be able to work that out. But boy, would that not be the most amazing card.”
Jones’ last fight was earlier this year when he won the UFC heavyweight title. He was supposedly fighting this summer in July during International Fight Week but now wants to push it back to November. McGregor is a little more up in the air as he has to enter the USADA testing before he’s eligible to return to the UFC anyway which would take six months. Cormier knows that there are several fights a year that are the most attractive to fighters he breaks it down in the video.
“What’s realistic is somebody’s going to move,” he said. “If that’s the case, both of these guys are targeting Madison Square Garden, the world’s most famous arena, somebody’s gonna have to move to the next fight card which is the end of the year pay-per-view in December. Both are massive. These are the two, as the guy that shared on the pay-per-view as a champion for the UFC. I know what fight cards you want to be on. You want to be on December. You want to be on November in Madison Square. You want to be on July in the middle of International Fight Week.”
Cormier has been featured on both the Madison Square Garden card and International Fight Week during his career. He never fought at the end of the year December card but knows what a big value that event holds. It seems that perhaps a Jones would have dibs over the Madison Square Garden event considering it could be his retirement bout, and he grew up in New York State. However, time will only tell to see how things will shake out.
