Former two-time Olympian and UFC champ champ Daniel Cormier long planned to retire from fighting at 40. He turned 41 on March 20, and wants one last fight, a trilogy vs. heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic. However, Miocic is recovering from an eye injury and battling COVID-19 in his day job as a part-time firefighter.
When the two finally fight, if DC wins, can he walk away from the belt?
“I believe I can,” said Cormier to Damon Martin for MMA Fighting. “It will be the hardest thing I’ll have to do but I believe I can and I think it will make everybody pretty happy in terms of my household, my wife and my kids. As much as they love watching me compete, the chance to see me go out on top would be a fairy tale."
“I’m probably one of the most competitive people you’ve ever met and that’s always going to tug at me. But I will have to put that focus to something else. I’ll have to work on my craft in front of the television in order to make up for that.”
“If we’re not able to get back to work until the summer, that kind of falls in line with what I was thinking or what the organization and Stipe were thinking for our fight time. The reality is [the COVID-19 global pandemic] wouldn’t really affect us in the sense of us not being able to train like we can’t right now."
“Stipe said worrying about a fight right now is not on my mind. This guy is one of the people that does try to save lives and his responsibility right now is not to me or the UFC. It’s to all these people in the Cleveland area who need help from Stipe the firefighter not Stipe the heavyweight champion of the world. I believe his mind is in the right place."