MMA News: Daniel Cormier confirms WWE Offer and reveals more details
What’s the story?
UFC Heavyweight and Light Heavyweight Champion, Daniel Cormier was on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show for ESPN and opened up about a host of topics in what has been described as one of the best interviews of the year.
He spoke about his upcoming Heavyweight title defense against Derrick Lewis while interestingly also spilling the beans on WWE’s most recent offer.
In case you didn’t know…
Daniel ‘DC’ Cormier is widely regarded as one of the greatest mixed martial artists in the sport’s history and nobody will dispute the fact. A former Olympic Freestyle Wrestler, DC forayed into the world of MMA and put together a flawless record until he came across his arch nemesis, Jon Jones. Despite losing twice to Jones, DC held onto the Light heavyweight strap after Jones tested positive for turinabol at UFC 214.
Cormier then went on to defend his Light Heavyweight strap once before defeating then-Heavyweight Champion Stipe Miocic to become only the second man to win two titles in two different weight categories simultaneously. In addition to his exploits inside the UFC Octagon, Cormier has won the world championship in every promotion he has worked with; XMAMA, King of the Cage and Strikeforce.
Cormier is widely expected to announce his retirement in the near future and has said that he has only two fights left in the tank -- a Brock Lesnar megafight and one final match against Jones. So what could be next for the lovable UFC champ? WWE surely has an eye on him….
The heart of the matter
At around 7 minutes in the interview, Cormier expressed his gratitude about being granted the opportunities to try out different things in his career when Ariel Helwani brought up WWE. If you've been following Cormier, you would know that the UFC Heavyweight is an avid pro wrestling fan and has always been prompt with his reactions on Twitter regarding the WWE product.
Helwani questioned Cormier as to who initiated the talk of him possibly working with WWE. DC replied by saying WWE’s management reached out to him for a possible role.
However, DC had this to say upon being probed further, “Right now, it’s in the backburner because we have to get through Saturday but we’ll see what happen after this weekend.”
Helwani was sharp as a tack and asked DC whether he could work for UFC and WWE at the same time. DC clarified by saying that he doesn’t intend on ‘starting this right now but these opportunities can’t be put on the backburner for too long’.
But do WWE want a 39-year-old DC to wrestle?
“No. No Wrestling. Just kind of doing stuff like that (talking and broadcast work)”, Cormier said. He mentioned how his role could pertain to WWE’s big deal with Fox. Check out what he had to say regarding the possible offer below:
What’s next?
Cormier will take on Derrick ‘The Black Beast’ Lewis at UFC 230 on November 3rd for the UFC Heavyweight Championship. The co-main event of the evening will see Chris Weidman take on Jacare Souza in a Middleweight clash.