Negotiations for a UFC heavyweight championship trilogy bout are coming together nicely, according to Daniel Cormier.
Cormier discussed the status of a third meeting with reigning heavyweight king Stipe Miocic during an Instagram Live video on Friday. “DC” has been awaiting the matchup as Miocic recovers from eye surgery following their second meeting at UFC 241, which the Ohio-based fighter won via fourth-round TKO.
“Look, I know we’re in a crazy time right now with the world and with the way things are and it’s very up in the air but I think for me with the way things are going and the discussions that we had heading into the fight, into all this, the way that the discussions in terms of the fight were going, where I am going to fight this guy for my last fight, it’s going to be as ideal for me as I could ever hope for,” Cormier said. “It’s gonna be beautiful.”
Cormier conducted the Instagram Live session with UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman while both fighters were observing quarantine precautions due to the coronavirus pandemic. Cormier hinted that Usman may very well be on the same card as the heavyweight trilogy.
I think the way things are falling you and I may be spending more time together than most people believe,” Cormier said to Usman. “Obviously we can’t say a date and time yet but it is looking like you and I shall and will be sharing a party and I think that’s going to be a good thing.”
A matchup between Usman and Jorge Masvidal had reportedly been targeted for International Fight Week in July, but that is far from finalized.
As for Cormier, the American Kickboxing Academy stalwart has long stated that a third meeting with Miocic would be his retirement fight. Nothing has changed in that regard.
“I got one [left],” Cormier said. “Some guy asked me today, ‘You going to keep fighting?’ I said, ‘No, I got one.’ Some of these guys are very young. I don’t have to fight a young guy. Miocic is about to be 38 years old. I got to fight one old guy one more time. That’s it. I ain’t fighting no 27-year-old dude.”