Daniel Cormier believes he would have a field day at light heavyweight if he was in his fighting prime right now.
The former two-division UFC champion and now color commentator was part of a Q&A with students at Eddie Alvarez’s Underground Kings gym, and was asked if he was in his prime, who would he want to fight most?
The answer is current light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira.
“If I was in my prime at light heavyweight right now? There’s no wrestlers, bro,” Cormier said. “Like, seriously. There’s no wrestlers.
I’d be just feasting on everybody at light heavyweight. There’s no wrestlers.
“If I was in my prime, probably Pereira [would be the guy I’d want to fight] because he’s the biggest star. You want to fight the biggest star. You want to make the most money as a champion, but there’s no wrestlers.”
“DC” had quite a bit of success at light heavyweight, winning the world title, and defeating everybody he faced in the division outside of Jon Jones. Cormier, as 205-pound champ, moved up to face Stipe Miocic for the heavyweight title at UFC 226 in July 2018 after coaching against him on TUF 27. Cormier knocked out Miocic to win the second title.
Cormier never returned to light heavyweight, and went on to defend the title against Derrick Lewis at UFC 230 in November 2018, and then lost to Miocic in his final two fights before calling it a career.
While the weight cut at 205 was never easy for Cormier, he understands he’d have tremendous success in the division if he were “prime DC.”
“Do you know the top-five when I was fighting? It was me, Jones, Ryan Bader was an All-American, Phil Davis is a national champion, Rashad Evans was an NCAA All-American,” Cormier explained. “We had so many wrestlers.
“Now there’s no wrestlers. So it’s like, yeah, we’ll fight at light heavyweight, not heavyweight.”
