UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier initially lost the gold to Jon Jones at UFC 214, but then a failed drug test caused Jones to be stripped of the gold and it was awarded back to Cormier.
Even though the loss against Jones was overturned to a no contest, but the champion wants to get the stench of that fight off of himself.
“My mentality hasn’t changed in that sense,” Cormier said on The MMA Hour. “On July 29th, I was there. I was in the Octagon on July 29th in Anaheim, and it was going all so good until it wasn’t anymore, and I lost the fight. So that has not changed. So I need to go out and fight against Volkan Oezdemir and beat this guy to feel like myself again. I feel like there is a stench on me. It’s almost like I got pissed on by a skunk, and I just stink everywhere I go. So until I can get a really, really good bath … to get the stink off of me by beating Volkan Oezdemir, I’ll feel as I do right now. That’s just me. I’m a competitor, man. I know I lost that fight. I can’t erase that memory. I still have nightmares.”
Cormier is fighting Volkan Oezdemir at UFC 220 and the bout will serve as the co-main event of the evening.
While the whole Jon Jones situation with USADA has yet to be fully resolved, it is now time to move on in DC’s point of view.
“I just kinda was like, just move onto the next guy,” Cormier said. “If it’s going to be somebody else, it’s going to be somebody else. I really don’t have any energy anymore for all these guys’ extracurriculars anymore. If you’re going to go to jail, go to jail — who gives a damn? If you’re going to get yourself in trouble, you get yourself in trouble. I didn’t do it. Whatever. I’ll just go onto the next guy. I’m not going to deal with that anymore.”
UFC 220 takes place on Saturday, January 20 from the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts with Stipe Miocic and Francis Ngannou headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
