Daniel Cormier is very positive that he and Alexander Gustafsson will go against each other to fight for the title this coming October. Even though the UFC light heavyweight champion sees Gustafsson, who has a record of 16-3 MMA and 8-3 UFC, as a “head-scratcher” type of opponent and would rather choose to go against Jon Jones, Cormier believes that he will be able to defeat Gustafsson and hold on to his title much longer.
In a recent interview, Cormier had some words regarding this matter:
“Being the way that he lost to Anthony (Johnson) kind of made it surprising that I was fighting him. But for me, if there was a guy, I’d prefer it be a guy who just experienced what he did in the octagon last time he was there, because not only did he get destroyed, he publicly said he was thinking about stopping fighting and pursuing something different,” Cormier said in the interview with MMAjunkie.
The interviews that Cormier is talking about were the ones that Gustafsson released before he lost to Johnson last January. Johnson defeated Jon Jones, who is also known as the “Rumble”, last UFC 187 and snagged the MMA title from him.
After this loss, it was reported that Gustafsson did not fight again had some thoughts about retiring. However, a lot of fans expressed their huge support to the fighter, which led him to reconsider his options and continue on with his career.
Cormier isn’t a big fan of what Gustafsson did. He said that this admission is a sign of weakness and that’s what sets him higher come UFC 192. The event will be held at Houston’s Toyota Center on October 3rd. It will be aired live on PPV.
“You’ve got to be all-in on this sport; you can’t be one foot out the door. For me, my confidence is very high after hearing him saying those things. You don’t quit after you get beat. You pick yourself up and you start rebuilding to accomplish your goals,” Cormier said.
Cormier has experienced dealing with losses and heartbreaks first hand, so he knows how to carry himself up during these situations. Just these past few months, Cormier was in the lowest point of his mma career. But this didn’t stop him from getting back on his feet.
Cormier had the chance to come face to face with his longest rival, Jones. This bout has been the greatest challenge Cormier had to face in his entire career. Sadly, the former Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix champ lost; Jones won the bout after the fifth round with a unanimous decision. Jones was able to hold on his title for the eighth time. On the other hand, losing this fight resulted to Cormier’s first professional loss in his career. A couple of months later, Cormier received a phone call asking him to take the place of Jones because the titleholder got stripped off his belt due to allegations on a hit-and-run accident. This allegations got Jones suspended indefinitely as well. Cormier was then asked to go against Johnson, the fighter who defeated Gustafsson last FOX 14. Cormier won this time around via submission in the third round and claimed the UFC light heavyweight MMA title.
Cormier isn’t buying what Gustafsson is showing after losing to Jones.
“Hearing that, it gives me more confidence in knowing that if Alex didn’t have to fight any more, he’d be OK with it. That’s not how I am. I need to fight. Anybody fighting right now that’s thinking about the other side, you do hold a little bit of an advantage. I’m not saying it’s an advantage to win the fight going out, but going into your training sessions, you don’t have your eyes on what’s next. You’re still focusing in the moment. He had to get refocused and think about doing this again. He thought about quitting, and at the end of the day, that’s not good when you’re fighting,” he said.