Daniel Cormier prior to his UFC 200 bout in July 2016
Dana White wants Daniel Cormier to fight three more times, trilogy with Jon Jones
Current UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier has set his retirement date for March 2019 but if UFC President Dana White had his way, there’ll be a few more fights in Cormier’s future. In an interview with TMZ, White said that he believes Cormier has a couple more fights in him, three fights to be exact, and he’d like a major fight at heavyweight for one of those fights.
White mentioned not only would he like to have Cormier face Jon Jones in a trilogy fight, but he’d like that fight to happen at heavyweight. Jones last defeated Cormier at UFC 214 in July of 2017, but that fight was overturned to a no-contest after a failed drug test. Jones is preparing to return after serving a 15-month suspension for the failed test and will face Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 232 for the light heavyweight title which is still currently held by Cormier.
At UFC 230, Daniel Cormier became the first UFC fighter ever to simultaneously defend two belts in two different weight classes when he defeated Derrick Lewis by submission in the second-round. Cormier became the heavyweight champion when he defeated Stipe Miocic at UFC 226 and also defended his light heavyweight title against Volkan Oezdemir at UFC 220.
Following his win over Miocic, Cormier had a confrontation with WWE superstar and former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar, who was at the time said to be the next challenger for Cormier’s heavyweight title. In his interview with TMZ, Dana White said that he’s not sure if the fight with Lesnar will happen at this time.
Despite all of the desires that White has, he also told TMZ that Cormier’s team wants him to retire now and be done with his fighting career. Prior to his fight with Derrick Lewis at UFC 230 in early November, Cormier stated that a fight with Brock Lesnar would make more sense “financially” than a trilogy fight with Jon Jones.
Dana White wants the double-champ to fight three more times, but Cormier has seemed pretty adamant that he will retire in March of 2019. One thing is clear for D.C. however, if he wants to fight longer than his set end date, there are plenty of options awaiting him in two divisions.
