Daniel Cormier picks former rival as the MMA heavyweight GOAT over Fedor Emelianenko

Daniel Cormier weighed in on the ongoing debate surrounding Fedor Emelianenko's standing in the MMA heavyweight GOAT discussion.

During a recent episode of ESPN MMA's DC & RC, Cormier gave his thoughts on Emelianenko’s retirement and how his career will be remembered.'DC' mentioned that in terms of the MMA heavyweight GOAT discussion, one of his former rivals deserves that status:

"I don't believe he's [Fedor Emelianenko] the greatest heavyweight of all time. I think that belongs to Stipe Miocic only because Cain Velasquez was injured so much... But I believe that Stipe Miocic in the title defenses, in the long reign that he had atop the division...puts him atop." [17:17 - 17:34]

'DC' also brought up that 'The Last Emperor' fought too long and retired later than when he should have. He mentioned that he believes his recent loss to Ryan Bader might have impacted his legacy:

"Fedor is the story of aging fighters who don't get out when they possibly or probably should. He's 46 years old, he's fighting Ryan Bader, he gets just demolished, and then you start to forget about all the great memories that he had because all you remember lately is what you're seeing, and what you're seeing is what you saw last weekend." [16:38 - 17:02]

Despite not viewing Emelianenko as the heavyweight MMA GOAT, Cormier believes that the former Pride heavyweight champion is in the top 5.

Check out the full video:

Daniel Cormier describes the importance of Islam Makhachev vs. Alexander Volkanovski

It's SUPER Fight Week!!

🏆@MakhachevMMA vs 🏆@AlexVolkanovski
AND @PanteraUFC vs @JoshEmmettUFC

[ #UFC284 | SATURDAY on @ESPNPlus PPV ] https://t.co/MppHfG0xxK

Daniel Cormier described the importance of the upcoming champion vs. champion super fight between Islam Makhachev and Alexander Volkanovski.

During the same episode of DC & RC, the former two-division UFC champion revealed that there is a lot at stake when two of MMA's top pound-for-pound fighters compete against each other.

He mentioned that the lightweight and featherweight divisions are two of the deepest divisions in the UFC:

"It is a massive fight in terms of the stakes. A massive fight in terms of the standing in the world, and massive stakes fight for two of the most important weight classes we have had for a long time in the UFC... This weekend we get those two champions fighting each other to ultimately prove who is the best. [23:16 - 23:43]"

It will be interesting to see whether 'Volk' could pull off an upset and defeat Makhachev to become a two-division UFC champion.