Daniel Cormier updates on status of Brock Lesnar fight

When Daniel Cormier captured the UFC heavyweight title with a July knockout of Stipe Miocic, the expectation was that he would battle former champ Brock Lesnar in a heavyweight title super fight sometime toward the end of the year.

Unfortunately for Daniel Cormier, this fight still hasn’t happened, and from the sounds of it, he’s not sure it will.

Speaking on The MMA Hour on Monday, Daniel Cormier updated on the status of this fight.

“As of right now with the Lesnar thing, that’s kinda still up in the air,” Cormier said (transcript via MMA Fighting). “I’ve gotten a lot of, ‘You’re not willing to fight Jones, you talk trash about Jones [and he his drug testing issues], but you’re willing to fight Lesnar?’ Nobody knows what’s in place in terms of drug testing between Brock Lesnar and I. These are just general assumptions as to what is Brock Lesnar truly going through right now to try to be eligible to compete. We could be doing so many different things that people are unaware of, and if Brock Lesnar’s clean on the day that we fight, because of these things, then why can’t I fight him?

“Or, if he doesn’t fight, then I’ll fight Stipe Miocic. I talked to the boss (Dana White) the other day and he’s talking to me about fights and Brock Lesnar and Jon Jones and everybody, and I said, ‘If Lesnar doesn’t go, Stipe has to be first. He deserves it, and I’ve said it from the beginning. If it ain’t Brock, I want to fight Stipe Miocic and give him what’s rightfully his, a rematch for this title.’ He’s going to get beat again, but at least he’ll get a chance to fight for that belt again.”

Daniel Cormier has long planned to retire by the time he turns 40 in March, but with fights with Lesnar, Jones, and Miocic all hanging on the horizon, it sounds like he could be reconsidering those plans. We know that’s what Dana White wants.

“Man, I don’t know,” he said. “Like I said, I’ve long intended to be done with this thing by the time I turn 40 years old, and I’ve had some things injury-wise that are really kinda holding me back right now. I would prefer to be getting ready to train right now and fight, but there are a couple things that have happened that I can’t really get going like I want to, so it’s kinda all still up in the air. Dana’s hopeful, he’s like, ‘Oh, you can fight three more times, you’re the man right now.’ And honestly, I could fight. I could still fight. It doesn’t seem like I’m slowing down too much. I mean, hell, I became the heavyweight champion a few months ago, it’s not like I’m slowing done.”

What do you think the next year holds for Daniel Cormier?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 12/31/2018.