Daniel Cormier Reveals How He’ll Remove ‘Stench’ Of Jon Jones Loss

UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier is preparing to defend his light heavyweight title against surging knockout artist Volkan Oezdemir in the co-main event of UFC 220 on Jan. 20, 2017 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Ahead of this defense, “DC” is in a unique position for a champion given the fact that he’s coming off of a brutal TKO loss to Jon Jones this past July. However, it was revealed after the fight that Jones failed yet another drug test and he was then stripped of the title, which led the UFC to once again crown Cormier the undisputed champion.

In regards to that situation, Cormier doesn’t shy away from what happened that night in California, although he says that the only thing he can do is ‘go back to work’:

“When you guys ask me these questions, it’s hard for me to not be who I am,” Cormier said yesterday at a UFC 220 press conference in Las Vegas. “I always say July 29th I was in the octagon, I know what happened, (and) I don’t hide from the result. I know what happened, and I lost the fight. That’s my reality. But what do I do when I lose a fight? What do I do when I’ve had anything bad happen to me? I get up, I dust myself off, and I go back to work. That’s all I can do. …

And because the memory of his rematch with Jones stays put in his mind, Cormier admits that there’s a ‘stench’ on him from a bad performance, and that there’s only one way he can rid himself of that:

“I feel like after the fight, there’s a stench, a stink on me from just a bad fight, a bad build-up, a bad result, a bad everything. I have to right that by not only beating Volkan Oezdemir, but really dominating him and smashing him. I’m going to smash him on January 20th. That’s the only way I can feel better being the competitor that I am.”

Do you expect Cormier to bounce back next month, or will Oezdemir continue his rise up the light heavyweight ranks?