Daniel Cormier, light-heavyweight champion successfully defended his title against Volkan Oezdemir in the co-main of UFC 220 on Saturday night Jan 20, and though he still feels he has a few fights left in him, he’s now starting to lay out his retirement plans.
Despite the fact that Daniel Cormier suffered ligament damage to his wrist and a minor thumb fracture during the fight, he’d like to waive surgery. Hence, he plans on heal naturally before making his comeback this summer.
“I’ve got a little break in my thumb and also some ligament damage. I don’t like to do surgery, so I’m going to try and put off the surgery. […] If it’s starting to heal, I’m not going to do the surgery, I’m going to some PRP (Platelet-rich plasma). I prefer to not go under the knife. I would rather just always try to do the alternative so as not to have too much time off. There was a break in there and also a torn ligament in my wrist, so that’s why I was having so many issues after the fight. It just takes longer. I want to try to not have surgery. […] I don’t really have the time to waste.”
“If everything goes great, six to eight weeks would be the injury time. That would be two months out, then a two month training camp would be ike four months. More realistic time frame for another fight would be sometime in the Summer. Maybe July, international fight week, somewhere in that time frame. That would also give me some time to rest and recover from the fight. [It’s just been] a long, hard year and also I want to have time for my injured to heal. That would give me time to maybe fight again before the end of the year, then maybe sneak in another one in around February or March. I could get three [fights] in before I’m done.”-Cormier told MMAjunkie
If you see UFC’s PPV schedule, this year’s International Fight Week will feature UFC 226, which set to takes place July 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. This seems like it could be the perfect time for Cormier’s return.
You can’t mention Cormier’s name without thinking of Jon ‘Bones’ Jones. We still don’t know what Jones’ future holds in the Octagon. Whether Jones is eligible to return will almost certainly impact who Cormier faces as he closes his career. Cormier has faced Jones twice already and lost both times.
