Back in July, in the main event of UFC 214, UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier sought to defend his title opposite his toughest rival, Jon Jones. Despite a strong start, Cormier was ultimately turned off by a Jones head kick, which flagged the end of his title reign – but only for a moment.
After UFC 214, we learned that Jones had failed a pre-fight USADA drug test. In the wake of this development, Jones’ knockout win was declared a no contest, and the title was returned to Cormier.
Recently Daniel Cormier fight with Volkan Oezdemir on Jan. 20 at UFC 220, was at snag when news broke out Oezdemir was arrested last month in Florida for allegedly knocking out an individual bar-room brawl. This situation was all familiar to Cormier, as his rivalry with fiercest rival Jones was infamously wrecked multiple times due to Jones’ many blunders.
Cormier took a deep breath that things work it out with Ozedemir.
Recently speaking with MMA Hour,
“I just kinda was like, just move onto the next guy,” Cormier said Monday on The MMA Hour. “If it’s going to be somebody else, it’s going to be somebody else. I really don’t have any energy anymore for all these guys’ extracurriculars anymore. If you’re going to go to jail, go to jail — who gives a damn? If you’re going to get yourself in trouble, you get yourself in trouble. I didn’t do it. Whatever. I’ll just go onto the next guy. I’m not going to deal with that anymore.
“I feel like I have lost years of my life dealing with the sh*t with Jones, in terms of the arguments, the fighting, the worry, whether we’re going to fight, when we’re going to fight. I’ve lost a lot of time and energy just wasted on things that were out of my control. So if Volkan Oezdemir goes to jail, if Alexander Gustafsson does something and gets himself put in trouble, I’ll just move onto the next one. That’s what it’s going to constantly be for me. At this point, they’re all faceless until fight night, whenever we’re standing across the Octagon from each other. It’s just a name, and whoever that name happens to be is who I’m going to fight.”
Now, the reinstated champ DC is looking ahead to his next challenge. He will attempt to defend the UFC light heavyweight title against Volkan Oezdemir in the co-main event of UFC 220.
Cormier is looking at this fight as a chance to rebound from this July’s failure with Jon Jones.
“On July 29th, I was there,” he said of his first fight with Jones. “I was in the Octagon on July 29th in Anaheim, and it was going all so good until it wasn’t anymore, and I lost the fight. So that has not changed. So I need to go out and fight against Volkan Oezdemir and beat this guy to feel like myself again. I feel like there is a stench on me. It’s almost like I got pissed on by a skunk, and I just stink everywhere I go. So until I can get a really, really good bath … to get the stink off of me by beating Volkan Oezdemir, I’ll feel as I do right now. That’s just me. I’m a competitor, man. I know I lost that fight. I can’t erase that memory. I still have nightmares.”
Do you think Cormier will come out victorious over Oezdemir at UFC 220?
