Count former UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos among those who don’t want to see Daniel Cormier defend his title against Brock Lesnar.
Cormier, the reigning heavyweight champ, seems willing to sit out and wait for a ‘super-fight’ against Lesnar rather than defend his title against a more deserving contender.
Speaking on the UFC Wichita post-fight show following his second round knockout of Derrick Lewis on Saturday, dos Santos said a Cormier-Lesnar fight just ‘doesn’t make sense.’
“For sure, not Brock Lesnar,” dos Santos said, per MMA Fighting’s Marc Raimondi. “It doesn’t make sense. … No, no, I’m a fan. I like to see Brock Lesnar fighting, but not for the title. He’s not even part of the sport right now. He cannot come back and fight for the title like this. I know ‘DC’ wants to make money, but man, it doesn’t make sense.”
Following on, dos Santos said he would rather see Cormier defend his title against Jon Jones. Jones knocked out Cormier to claim the light heavyweight title at UFC 217, but the bout was overturned to a No Contest after ‘Bones’ tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Prior to that, Jones beat Cormier via unanimous decision at UFC 182.
Dos Santos, a heavy hitting knockout artist from Bahia, Brazil, also believes he would be more deserving of a title shot than Lesnar.
“Of course,” dos Santos said when told that Cormier may be deserving of a ‘money fight’ with Lesnar. “I do understand that. But I cannot agree that this fight with Brock Lesnar makes sense, because it doesn’t. But of course politics — it’s politics. They can do whatever they want, but it doesn’t make sense. The right fight to do in the heavyweight division is Stipe, Ngannou or even me. I don’t know. I heard something about Jon Jones coming up to the heavyweight and fighting him. That would make more sense than Brock Lesnar fighting. But we’ll understand if he has to fight Brock Lesnar to make money or whatever. It’s always interesting to see Brock Lesnar fighting — and getting beat. I don’t know.”
Despite dos Santo’s protests, it’s looking like Cormier will, in fact, go on to defend his title against Lesnar. UFC president Dana White has assured the media that ‘DC’s’ next title defense will be against Lesnar, despite the WWE superstar not having officially won a fight in almost nine years.
“The Brock fight is Cormier’s. When Cormier’s healthy, that’s his fight. And plus Brock has WWE obligations right now, or believe me he’d be calling me.”
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