Daniel Cormier revealed his top three UFC fights of the current calendar year.
The halfway point of 2023 is approaching, and there has been plenty of intriguing fights in the UFC. Although it’s difficult to narrow the list down to three, Cormier broke down his favorites in a recent YouTube video.
‘DC’ started with the UFC 285 main cart bout between ranked welterweights Geoff Neal and Shavkat Rakhmonov. Neal was able to showcase his heart, but Rakhmonov dominated most of the thrilling fight, leading to a third-round submission. Cormier had this to say about the matchup:
“This fight was bananas, go back and watch it. Anytime you have a fight that tells two stories. One story being the toughness and durability of Fighter A. The other story being the domination of Fighter B. Matchmaking at its finest, that’s what you got at UFC 285, but for as good as that fight was, it’s not my best fight for the first part of the year.”
The second action-packed fight selected by Cormier was the UFC 284 main event. Despite Alexander Volkanovski’s valiant effort, he could not dethrone Islam Makhachev for the lightweight world championship. ‘DC’ explained what makes the matchup his second favorite of the calendar year by saying:
“Ultimately, what we got was the two best fighters pound-for-pound, in my opinion, fighting for the lightweight championship of the world to the point that Volkanovski was offered an immediate second chance at Makahchev, that’s how competitive the fight was. A good fight can be a knockdown drag out, and we will get to the number one fight, and that’s exactly what that was. It can also be two of the most skilled guys in the world competing at a level that not many can mention. I believe that’s exactly what we got at UFC 284.”
Daniel Cormier names Justin Gaethje vs. Rafael Fiziev as the best fight of 2023
Daniel Cormier’s current fight of the year was the UFC 286 co-main event between Justin Gaethje and Rafael Fiziev. As ‘DC” mentions, there were no losers in this fight. Fiziev might have suffered a loss on his record, but he earned respect from fans worldwide. Cormier had this to say about the lightweight matchup:
“Justin Gaethje did what he does, and that’s take your will to fight. Even though Fiziev was there and still trying, you could really see that it was done… That fight was amazing, and people were on their feet from the moment it started.”
It’ll be intriguing to see if Cormier’s selections are considered for Fight of the Year after the next six months. Other honorable mentions are Kelvin Gastelum vs. Chris Curtis, Glover Teixeira vs. Jamahal Hill, and more.
