Daniel Cormier is set to retire from mixed martial arts this year and he sees no problem if his final fight happens behind closed doors.
Last month, the former UFC two-division champion confirmed he has one fight left in his MMA career, which will be the trilogy fight against Stipe Miocic.
Cormier drew first blood in their heavyweight rivalry as he finished the 38-year old in their first meeting at UFC 226 in July 2018 to capture the 265-pound title but Miocic bounced back last year with a fourth-round technical knockout win.
“With the way things are going and the discussions that we had heading into the fight, into all this, the way that the discussions in terms of the fight were going, where I am going to fight this guy for my last fight, it’s going to be as ideal for me as I could ever hope for,” DC said while hinting on a potential massive card for his swan song.
Opportunity To Finish
With global sports hit by the coronavirus pandemic, Cormier is open with the possibility that his final fight will take place in an empty arena.
It doesn’t matter now for DC whether there will be fans in his swan song as long as he gets the ‘chance to finish’ just like Vince Carter, who nailed a three pointer in the final seconds of what could be his last NBA game.
“It’s going to end that way. Empty arena and if it’s at the (UFC) Apex, I think the cage is smaller. It’s like the Ultimate Fighter cage, so that’s a whole other fight,” he said (per MMA Fighting).
“It’s a smaller cage than the one we fight in for pay-per-views. But yeah, I’ll go fight this guy in the empty arena.”
“I want to fight him. Yeah, you know, it could end like that or it could end like Vince Carter.”
“Vince actually got lucky that they got to finish their game. Vince got to finish their game and everybody kind of moved off the side and he shot a three-pointer.”
“You can not have a chance to finish, so at least I get an opportunity to finish.”
Going Out On Top
More importantly, Cormier hopes his family will be in attendance as he aims to retire from the sport while he’s on top of the world.
“I don’t know how it would work with my family,” DC said.
“That is the one thing I would want. I would want my wife and kids to experience that last one, but I don’t know if that’s even gonna be possible if it’s done in that way. So, a little bit different, a little different though.”
Cormier ended: “I was pretty confident that it was gonna happen at the time in my head that I know, but right now I don’t know when in the summer it’s gonna happen.”
“But I just can feel that when it does, it’s gonna be bigger than it was ever gonna be. . . More good fights, more people at home watching. It’s gonna be the perfect way to go out – on top, as the man.”
(Featured Image Source: Instagram/ Daniel Cormier and Vince Carter)