This post may contain affiliate links to products or services which, if you purchase, may result in my earning commissions at no additional cost to you.
Posted by Mika Frankl
On Saturday January 12th Daniel Comier fought in the final Strikeforce card defeating Dion Staring by 2nd round TKO. Following the bout Cormier called out Frank Mir to do battle at UFC on Fox 7 that is expected to take place on April 20, 2013 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California. The bigger noise was made when he said, “and after that I’m going to whip Jon Jones come the fall.”
The prospect of Cormier vs. Jones is an intriguing one, considering Cormier has never fought at 205 and that Cormier had to pull out of the 2008 Olympics due to kidney failure. Cormier did win a 211 lbs. title in the real pro wrestling league but that was a few year ago. To add to why this makes no sense is how does beating Mir, a Heavyweight, make you the Light Heavyweight number one contender.
Cormier being given a title shot may not be as ridiculous as Frankie Edgar getting a title shot after 2 straight losses and Sonnen getting his shot off a loss. The ridiculous part would be to allow Cormier to jump over Dan Henderson and Alexander Gustafsson who have been in the company and the weight class, doing hard work winning. If Cormier get the title shot the way he plans what does that says about the state of the division that the last three title challengers are two Middleweights and then a Heavyweight. The amount of disrespect that would show to Dan Henderson, Alexander Gustafsson, Lyloto Machida, and Glover Teixeira would just be baffling to me.
What I believe should happen is that because Cormeir wants Mir, then do that fight. This gives the chance for Machida to face Henderson with the winner facing Gustafsson for the number one contender to face the winner of Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen winner. I then think that Cormeir should come down to 205 and face either the Rashad Evans vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira winner or the Glover Teixeira vs. Rampage winner.
To me it just makes sense for winners in a division to fight for a title in the division that fighter has a win in. If Cormier wants to be the Light Heavyweight champion he should have to earn it but very sadly that is not the MO of the UFC lately. By earning it with the star that Cormier has been made into, earning it would only be to have had one fight in the Light Heavyweight division.
Follow Mika Frankl on twitter @cagedmindsmma
