Yahoo Lifestyle Daniel Cormier eyes Stipe Miocic trilogy as his retirement fight: 'No one else matters'
Daniel Cormier’s not ready to retire quite yet.
The 40-year-old UFC heavyweight has his eyes set on completing a trilogy with Stipe Miocic. But once that fight’s in the books, he says his days in the Octagon will be done.
Cormier: ‘No one else matters’
“I'm gonna fight this guy again,” Cormier told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani on Monday. “My intention is to fight him in the right way. ... It has to be against Stipe. No one else matters.”
Cormier confirmed what UFC boss Dana White has been saying for several days. White told Barstool Sports last week that once Miocic recovers from the pair’s latest bout that saw Miocic reclaim his heavyweight title in August, preparations will begin to complete the trilogy.
Cormier led scorecards after three rounds in that fight before Miocic scored a fourth-round knockout.
STIPE KNOCKS OUT DC IN ROUND 4!!!#AndNew! What a fight! #UFC241 pic.twitter.com/ocJIfpRvyj
— UFC (@ufc) August 18, 2019
“Stipe is recovering from that fight,” White said. “He’s got some bumps and bangs from that fight. We’re waiting for him to heal, and, yeah, we’re going to do the trilogy.”
Cormier defeated Miocic in July of 2018 via first-round knockout to claim the heavyweight belt, adding to the light heavyweight title that he already possessed.
Jon Jones trilogy appears to be ruled out
He call out Brock Lesnar after that victory and said as recently as May that he wanted a third match against Jon Jones at light heavyweight.
“It’s all I want," Cormier told Helwani of fighting Jones in May. “I think when I fight Jones, I feel most complete when I’m preparing for a competition against that guy. It's makes me train harder. It makes me train smarter. If I do stick around, that would be the fight that I would do it for.”
The Lesnar fight never came to fruition, and Cormier’s statement Monday indicates that there won’t be another Jones fight either.
“The next one will be the last one.”
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