Daniel Cormier confirms he will fight one more time, targets UFC 245

Former UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier is coming back for one more fight.

In an interview with Ariel Helwani of ESPNESPN, Cormier said he will be returning to the Octagon for the final fight of his career. That final fight, according to Cormier, will be a trilogy fight against Stipe Miocic who won the heavyweight title back from Cormier with a fourth-round victory over Cormier at UFC 241.

“Next one will be the last one, but it has to be Stipe. No one else matters.”@dc_mma tells @arielhelwani he plans to retire after a trilogy fight with Stipe Miocic pic.twitter.com/KrOD2c2lVB

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) September 23, 2019

“I’m going to fight this guy again and my intention is to fight him in the right way and hopefully that’s enough to get my hand raised. But, I’ll go fight him again, win or lose, I’m not fighting again. This will be the only time I ever step foot in the Octagon again.”

Cormier would continue on to say that his return has to be against Stipe Miocic, as both fighters have a victory over each other in battles over the UFC’s heavyweight title. The former champion added that the trilogy fight between Miocic and Cormier is a fight that the UFC wants to make.

“The next one will be the last one, but it has to be Stipe, no one else matters,” he said. “Yes, they want to make that fight, they want me to fight Stipe again. It was a fantastic fight, it was a fantastic fight for all the wrong reasons, it didn’t have to be a fantastic fight, but it was.”

Paying respect to his opponent, Cormier went on to say that in another fight between the two, he believes he can do things better than he did in their second matchup at UFC 241.

“I’m not saying I can just go grab Stipe Miocic and throw him down at will, but I can do a lot of things better than I did on August 17.”

When asked about a possible return date and being the third possible title fight at UFC 245, Cormier told Helwani that he would have no problem fighting at UFC 245 in Las Vegas, Nevada, if the slot was available and offered to him.

Cormier to @arielhelwani: "If Dec. 14 becomes available, that would work for me. I'd be happy to get myself ready to do that.” #HelwaniShow

— Marc Raimondi (@marcraimondi) September 23, 2019

While there was plenty of speculation as to the future of Cormier’s fighting career, he told ESPN that he couldn’t retire after losing to Miocic the way that he did, and that his wife was the main motivator in convincing him to return, telling ‘D.C.’ to go back and fight his fight.

Cormier tells @arielhelwani that he likely would have retired had he beat Miocic. His reason for returning is because he does not want to retire with that loss being his final fight.

Cormier says that if he fights the way he should have fought and loses, he's okay with it.

— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) September 23, 2019

While there has not yet been an announcement for this trilogy fight, it appears that all sides are willing and ready to make it happen, and it could be the third title fight on the schedule for UFC 245.

Who do you see winning in the trilogy fight between Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier?

on 9/23/2019