Daniel Cormier is worried about the state of American MMA with UFC White House just around the corner.
At the moment, the UFC currently has three undisputed champions who hail from the United States, Ohio’s Kayla Harrison (bantamweight) and Arizona’s Mackenzie Dern (strawweight), and none in the men’s divisions (Arizona’s Justin Gaethje recently won an interim lightweight title). In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Cormier addressed the lack of Americans at the top when asked about the poor state of the heavyweight division, which features no U.S. fighters in the top 10.
“It’s not dead because Tom Aspinall is an absolute stud,” Cormier said of the heavyweight division. “I think Ciryl Gane proved that there’s a lot of competition in that weight class for him in that last fight. Jon Jones is still lingering. I know people might want to think that he’s done, but he’s still lingering, hanging around.
“But the heavyweight division is always going to be OK because it doesn’t take much to get people excited. The reason it was so hot when Tom Aspinall first won the belt, because Tom looked so good. It’s just a matter of him coming back and just solidifying the fact that he’s the best in the world. It was the way the last fight ended with the eye poke, but Tom’s still dealing with that eye injury right now. It was a real injury.”
Cormier then went on to address what he considers to be a more pressing issue.
“The bigger problem is the Americans because not only do we not have an American in the top 10 at heavyweight, we don’t have an American in the top 10 pound for pound in any weight,” Cormier said. “Justin Gaethje now is the interim champion. It’s the only belt we have on American males. But we’re going to fix that, we’ll start training some wrestlers.”
Outside of heavyweight, there are still plenty of American fighters in the rankings, though many are longtime veterans or former champions as opposed to genuinely exciting up-and-coming talents. That might explain why Cormier named longtime rival Jones as one of the likely names to bring gold back to the U.S.—and in the division he once ruled for the better part of a decade.
“I don’t know, I think if Jon Jones is going to fight, I think we have a better chance of seeing him fight Alex Pereira at 205 at the White House,” Cormier said. “That is the fight, at least in my opinion. Jon Jones at heavyweight is great. I think his best is when he’s a 205-pounder. He’s gotten bigger, but I think he can still get the weight off.”
Then again… Sorry, Cormier, Jon Jones says, “I think I could be done.”
Chaos. Fighter bites ear, battered by chairs, drinks, and punches as he makes a frantic escape.
Confidence. Usman Nurmagomedov believes he’d beat UFC’s best as easily as he did Alfie Davis.
Pause. Mario Bautista and Vinicius Oliveira exchanged, er, unique trash talk ahead of UFC Vegas 113.
Compromised. Oliveira claims he had a major injury before his fight with Bautista.
Sure. Merab Dvalishvili and Muin Gafurov give their side of the story after Gafurov’s last-second tap-out.
Brotherhood. Alex Pereira wants to see past kickboxing foe Dustin Jacoby get a number in the UFC rankings.
Ageless. Andrei Arlovski and Charles Bennett (!!!) both scored impressive victories at BKFC KnuckleMania 6.
UFC Vegas 113 post-fight show.
Mike Heck chats with Michael Chandler about his UFC White House hopes.
Post-fight pre-fight footage from The Baddy.
On To the Next One. The Best Friends Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee sort through potential matchups after the first Fight Night of the Paramount era. Where does Mario Bautista go after a spectacular main event performance?
SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE
That’s one way to call someone out.
UFC Vegas 113 was pretty good! Now let’s never have Kyoji Horiguchi fight in a glorified warehouse again.
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