Daniel Cormier Briefly Considered UFC Return Against Jan Blachowicz

Former two-weight UFC world champion, Daniel ‘DC’ Cormier has revealed he briefly contemplated ending his recent retirement, in pursuit of recently minted light heavyweight champion, Jan Blachowicz‘s crown.

Cormier, a former undisputed light heavyweight and heavyweight champion himself, called time on his illustrious career following UFC 252 in August in a rubber-match with current heavyweight best, Stipe Miocic, dropping a unanimous decision defeat to the Ohio native.

The Louisiana born veteran has featured prominently as a colour-commentator under the UFC’s banner in the last few years, often partnering Joe Rogan and Jon Anik at the commentary booth. Whilst a career in the commentary booth and as an analyst is most certainly on the horizon for the former Olympian, Cormier revealed recently that he considered coming out of retirement to clash with Blachowicz, albeit briefly.

“I’ve got to be honest,” Cormier explained to MMA Fighting recently. “When Jan Blachowicz was like, ‘hey, you want to disrespect me, get off the couch and come fight me.’ And I think to myself maybe I’ll fight Jan Blachowicz. I’ll go fight him and get this done and then I can walk away. That lasted about fifteen minutes and then I completely understood that I was completely done.“

The longtime American Kickboxing Academy mainstay would go on to detail how his brief idea of a comeback stemmed from the current lie of the light heavyweight land, and how he vacated the crown in search of heavyweight gold, without actually losing the championship.

“Obviously every great fighter feels they can win,” Cormier said. “I was like ‘maybe I’ll go fight Jan Blachowicz’cause there seems to be a path for that. When I left 205(-pounds), I just kind of left. I vacated the title and now that this new champion is there with not many big-name fights on the horizon.“

“I thought about that for like fifteen minutes and then I was like you know what? I’m good,” Cormier jokingly said. “The thought of going down to 205(-pounds) and all this other stuff. Yeah, I think I’m fine. That was it.“

Cormier, a former light heavyweight championship holder had managed three successful defences of the title, picking up victories over Alexander Gustafsson, Anthony Johnson, and Volkan Oezdemir.

While Cormier has noted his fleeting idea of a return to the Octagon, former KSW light heavyweight best, Blachowicz, is widely expected to attempt his first title defence, possibly in March, opposite current 185-pound best, Israel ‘The Last Stylebender’ Adesanya. 

UFC president, Dana White had announced the promotion’s plans to pair Blachowicz with Adesanya following former middleweight best, Robert ‘The Reaper’ Whittaker’s apparent rejection of a title rematch with Adesanya, something he’s firmly refuted.

 
A date or event for Blachowicz proposed clash with Adesanya has yet to be determined, with recent UFC Vegas 13 big winner, Glover Teixeira also campaigning to meet with Blachowicz ahead of the latter, after notching his fifth consecutive light heavyweight win against Thiago ‘Marreta’ Santos.