Daniel Cormier willing to commentate upcoming UFC events under certain conditions

Former two-division UFC champ Daniel Cormier is willing to undertake commentary duty for upcoming UFC events — provided certain conditions are met.

The UFC schedule has been massively affected by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. While most sports organizations have closed up shop, however, UFC president Dana White has taken a show-must-go-on approach, moving multiple events to the Tachi Palace Casino in California, and even suggesting some events could occur on a “private island.”

Despite these shake-ups, and the ongoing threat of the pandemic, Cormier says he’s willing to don the commentator’s headset if the fights are in California and if adequate testing occurs.

“A lot of things have to deal with location, right? If its somewhere close and very accessible, I don’t see why you wouldn’t do it,” Cormier told MMA Junkie (via Bloody Elbow). “They’re going to be tested; they’re going to test everybody. You gotta understand going to do that UFC show, even if you aren’t showing symptoms of the coronavirus, you should still get tested anyway. So you could be better off than the people sitting home not getting tested. Understand what I’m saying?

“They won’t let you into the UFC event without testing you. So when they test you, you’ll know whether or not you have the coronavirus. And I believe that that makes it as safe as you can hope for.”

Cormier continued, explaining that he trusts the UFC to take adequate precautions as the company continues to operate in the face of this pandemic.

“Obviously Dana and the company has access to those tests and test the fighters and test the referees and officials, test the UFC, test everybody,” Cormier said. “So if there’s going to be a safe situation, it’s going to be with those people in that arena, especially if you go from your car into the arena to do the fights, out of the arena and back home. Unless you’re out there doing all kinds of random things, you’re pretty safe to call the fights. If it’s accessible, and I don’t want to get on an airplane and go to an airport right now. But if it’s accessible, and I go there and get tested and get to call the fights and then go home, yeah, why not?”

“I mean, the fights have to get going,” Cormier added. “As a country, I know that we need to be very serious about social distancing and staying at home and really try to stop the spread of this virus. But you just gotta hope, as a person, that life starts to get moving sooner than later. It’s just hard, man. Everything just looks so different. Life looks so different. I find myself saying this almost every day to someone: I can’t believe this is happening in my lifetime. You never could’ve imagined something like this would become part of your daily life. And it has, and you just hope sooner than later we can get back to normalcy.”

While Daniel Cormier is willing to serve as a commentator for upcoming UFC events, he might find himself getting a little lonely in that position, as both Joe Rogan and Jon Anik have expressed reluctance to work in these uncertain times.

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 4/9/2020.