Daniel Cormier, towards the end of 2018, would’ve circled a date at the beginning of March on his calendar. The UFC Heavyweight Champion had originally decided to hang up his gloves by his 40th birthday. However, with Brock Lesnar being, well, Brock Lesnar, Daniel Cormier hasn’t fought since his defeat of Derrick Lewis. While Cormier does have a few options to wrap up his career and walk into the sunset, the former double champion is still waiting for the right occasion and the big payday that fighters seem to crave for so much today.

And that begs the question; if Lesnar isn’t ready to fight, and Jon Jones is busy eliminating whatever semblance of competition is still left in the light heavyweight division, why doesn’t Cormier want to give Stipe Miocic a rematch? After all, Miocic was the one that welcomed ‘DC’ back to the heavyweight division, and had no qualms giving him a crack at the title.

Stipe Miocic Needs To Fight Before Getting A Title Shot – Daniel Cormier

According to Daniel, Miocic doesn’t deserve an immediate rematch, plain and simple.

“This is crazy sh*t right here”, Cormier quipped during his appearance on The MMA Hour earlier in the week (transcript via MMA Fighting). “Stipe hasn’t fought in so long that Jon Jones will have fought twice since he last got to the Octagon. When’s the last time that’s happened?

“Jones will have had two fights and at the rate that he’s fighting, maybe three by the time Stipe fights again if he waits and fights me in the summer. That’s crazy, because Jones doesn’t fight very often. That’s crazy.”

DC further elaborated on the fact that even he has fought once after beating Miocic, while the former champion is holding out for a rematch.

“I just don’t like that I’ve fought again and he still hasn’t fought.”

However, that doesn’t mean DC doesn’t empathize with Stipe. Cormier likened Stipe’s predicament with his own, when he lost to Jon Jones.

“I understand where he’s coming from because I’ve been there with Jones twice and I’m like, ‘God, I know I can beat him if I can just get another opportunity to do it. I know I can beat him.’ And it burns at you and it eats at you, especially the way that he lost the fight. I get it,” Cormier said. “But I don’t have to really owe anything.

“I’ve said that before, I’ve said he deserves it. I’ve said that. He deserves a rematch if I don’t get to fight Brock. I’ve always stood by that. But you can’t just go, ‘Well, you owe it to me.’ I don’t want to sit here and talk bad about Stipe because I like Stipe. I think he’s a good guy. He’s a fantastic father. He’s a pillar of the community. He’s a great fighter. I think he’s great. But you can’t sit there and say, ‘He owes me.’

“When I lost to Jones the first time, I thought, ‘Man, if I can just get another opportunity.’ I didn’t just sit and wait. I went right back to work at trying to re-earn the opportunity if they weren’t going to give it to me. I wasn’t the champion obviously, so the circumstances were different, but I right away scheduled a fight to try to get my way back to that fight and it’s almost like he hasn’t really taken that approach. That’s one of the things where I’m kind of like, what’s going on? Why hasn’t he fought yet still?”

Daniel Cormier urged Stipe to get back inside the cage, and fight somebody. Otherwise, DC believes the last memory Stipe will have is of him getting knocked out.

“Just go beat somebody up, then you can’t ignore it”, Cormier said. “He can go knock somebody out again and it’s like, ‘Well, you gotta fight him.’ Then the last memory of him in the Octagon is not him getting knocked out.”

Even if Stipe Miocic were to fight someone, and win in a decisive fashion, DC still doesn’t think that would guarantee him a fight for the title.

“If we talk about Dana’s schedule of fights: he said Lesnar, Stipe, Jones”, Cormier said. “I guess that last one at 205 would probably be the best because I don’t want to be going down to 205 back up to heavyweight. It would be Lesnar, Miocic, and Jones if I had three fights.

“If I had three fights. If I had two, it may be Lesnar, back to 205 to fight Jones. But it’ll be on my terms.”

Daniel Cormier Thinks Cain Velasquez Can Become The UFC Heavyweight Champion Again

While Stipe hasn’t fought since he lost to DC, Cain Velasquez’s career has been erratic to say the least. The former UFC Heavyweight Champion, who was — and still is in many peoples’ eyes — considered to be the greatest heavyweight in the history of the sport has fought just four times since winning the title back in 2012.

However, DC thinks UFC can now put their trust and faith in Cain again.

“You’re going to see vintage, you’re going to see the best,” Cormier said ahead of Cain’s fight at UFC Phoenix. “Nothing has changed. He is still as good, still as fast. He still can wrestle, as well. You have to remember, this whole time off he’s been helping me the whole time.

“He will be the champ, very, very soon. As soon as I’m out of there he will be the champ. The only issue with that is, the UFC has to know, now Cain is healthy and they can trust him because he will be around for a while.”