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Daniel
Cormier has repeatedly stated that UFC 252 would be his final
mixed martial arts bout. While many debated whether that would
prove true as his trilogy with Stipe
Miocic approached, “DC” doubled down on that vow following a
disappointing loss on Saturday night.
“It just sucks, being on the losing end of two big fights and
trilogies – it’s a very sad position to be in,” Cormier told Joe
Rogan in a post-fight interview. “But I will deal with it as I’ve
dealt with things in the past. I’m not interested in fighting for
anything but titles, and I don’t imagine there’s going to be a
title in the future. So that’ll be it for me. I’ve had a long run.
It’s been great. I just fought my last fight for a heavyweight
championship, and it was a pretty good fight. It is what it
is.”
Cormier was hindered badly by an eye poke that occurred in the
third round, so much so that the American Kickboxing Academy
product was unable to see out of his left eye for the remainder of
the bout. According to a report from ESPN,
Cormier suffered a torn cornea as a result of the foul and was
discharged from the hospital on Saturday not. Surgery isn’t likely
to be necessary.
“I mean, look at my eye,” Cormier said. “I couldn’t even f—ing
see the rest of the fight. I can’t see anything out of my left eye.
It’s black. It is what it is. It doesn’t matter. I told Marc
[Goddard] he poked me, but he said he thought it was a punch. But
after the fight he said, ‘Yeah, I saw it on the replay.’ I just
can’t see out of my left eye. It doesn’t matter, though. Whatever.
It is what it is.”
Goddard later
issued an apology for missing the foul. Cormier inadvertently
poked Miocic earlier in the bout, which the veteran official did
catch. And of course, Miocic was victimized by eye pokes in their
rematch that forced him to undergo surgery and endure a lengthy
recovery process prior to UFC 252.
UFC president Dana White believes that the eye poke should detract
from Miocic’s accomplishment, especially considering there was an
earlier foul courtesy of Cormier.
“You can’t look at the eye poke and take that away. There were two
eye pokes – they both got poked in the eye, and that eye was hurt
before the poke,” White said at the post-fight press conference.
“We’ve got a big group text that goes on, and I was like, ‘There’s
something wrong with Cormier’s eye,’ and then he got poked after
that. That didn’t help, but they both got poked – you can’t use
that as an excuse. “I think his eye was hurt before the poke and
the poke definitely didn’t help. But you can’t look at the poke and
say, ‘Oh, the poke.’ Stipe got poked hard, too. They both got
poked.”
Cormier wasn’t able to implement his wrestling as much as he might
of liked, as he landed his lone takedown of the fight in the
opening stanza. Outside of that, it was often Miocic who dictated
the action in the clinch against the fence.
“It wasn’t much different [from their previous fights],” Cormier
said. “I mean, look – I can’t see. So he did a good job. He was
able to clinch and hold me against the side of the octagon for long
periods of time, and I believe that separated those close rounds. …
I felt like we were going pretty good. But when he would get those
clinch positions, he was going double underhooks, which is
something he didn’t do in the first two fights. Usually, we were
going over-under, and I was able to get away, but tonight he went
two under, so it gave me some trouble.”
