Daniel Cormier entered Saturday’s UFC 200 event in a tough spot. He didn’t want to lose out on his payday for the event, and so he agreed to a fight with Anderson Silva on two days notice. However, it was a fight he couldn’t risk losing, so he fought a safe fight that brought nothing but scorn from fans at the T-Mobile Arena.
“It’s a very difficult position to be in because what type of performance would have been enough?” he asked during the post-fight show on Fox Sports 1. “Was I supposed to just go out and knock this guy out in a minute? This is still Anderson Silva we’re talking about. Sometimes you can actually do things that are very detrimental to you having success. You go into a late notice fight with somebody you think you can beat and then you don’t fight to your potential, and you mess up and it ends up costing you.”
As he explained, this was almost a no-win situation for him, because there was a such a massive gulf between what a victory would mean and how devastating a loss would have been.
“The benefit to me winning tonight was so minimal compared to if I lost this fight,” Cormier said. “It would have been disastrous, because I would not have lost the belt, I would still be the Light Heavyweight Champion, but Anderson would have probably gone down a weight class to fight Michael [Bisping]. It would have been a nightmare for me to go out and lose this fight.”
Penick’s Analysis: What’s somewhat ironic is Cormier was taking Jon Jones’ short notice performance against Ovince Saint Preux as what he was going to be like moving forward. Now he’s found out for himself why that probably wouldn’t have been the case. I can’t fault either of them for their performances. Cormier got in trouble enough in this fight, and it would have been the worst possible thing for him to lose this fight in any fashion. He did what he had to do, and though that may not have won him any fans it means he’s still got the top spot at 205 lbs. in Jones’ absence.
[Photo (c) Joe Camporeale via USA Today Sports]
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