With his teammate Cain Velasquez being the UFC heavyweight champion, Daniel Cormier has stated that he is planning to move down to the light heavyweight division after his next fight.
Cormier (12-0) wants one more fight at heavyweight and mentioned the possibility of facing the winner of Saturday night’s main event between Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Fabricio Werdum.
However, after hearing what Roy Nelson said on the UFC 161 Media Conference Call on Tuesday, he wants his last fight at heavyweight to be against Nelson.
Cormier told this to FUEL TV reporter Ariel Helwani and he reported it on Tuesday night’s edition of UFC Tonight.
“A couple of weeks ago, Daniel Cormier told me he wants to fight the winner of Nogueira vs. Werdum,” Helwani said. “He also told me to throw Roy Nelson’s name in the mix. On the UFC 161 conference call, Nelson mentioned that Cormier turned down a fight against him for UFC 161. When Daniel heard this, he called me and said ‘Forget about Werdum, forget about Nogueira, I want Roy Nelson.’ He said, ‘I want to kick his ass for Dana White.’ Cormier wants it to be his last fight at heavyweight.”
Nelson will be facing Stipe Miocic in the co-main event of UFC 161 which is the final fight on his UFC contract. His manager Mike Kogan has said on Twitter that he will be meeting with UFC President Dana White following the fight to discuss a new contract for his client.
As long as Nelson and the UFC can come to terms on a new contract, it appears that fans can expect to see Cormier versus Nelson at some point before the year ends.