Daniel Cormier Slams Alexander Gustafsson After Asking for an Interim Title Fight
Daniel Cormier has had enough of Alexander Gustafsson.
What started out as a friendly rivalry between the light heavyweight champion and a top contender in the division has turned into a nasty war of words in recent weeks.
Cormier defeated Gustafsson back in 2015 to defend his title and since that time the Swedish born contender has one two more bouts in a row to potentially put himself back into a position to compete for gold again.
Unfortunately, Gustafsson didn’t get a title shot earlier this year when the UFC opted for Volkan Oezdemir to get the opportunity instead. Cormier then made short work of him at UFC 222 in January.
Afterwards, Cormier was presented with the opportunity to move to heavyweight and potentially win a second championship when he takes on Stipe Miocic in July as the main event at UFC 226. It will be only the third time in UFC history where two champions are battling it out and Cormier has the opportunity become only the second fighter to ever hold belts in two divisions (Conor McGregor is the other).
Still none of that seems to matter to Gustafsson as he’s been very vocal in protest of Cormier leaving the division to pursue a second title rather than facing him a second time as the No. 1 contender. In fact just recently, Gustafsson went as far as saying that he’s demanding that his next fight be for an interim title in Cormier’s absence.
That didn’t sit to well with the reigning light heavyweight champion.
“Alexander Gustafsson, I keep bringing him up cause I used to like him, I can’t stand this dude now,” Cormier said on the latest edition of “UFC Tonight”. “This dude is out of control. He keeps talking. He keeps talking as if he deserves something. This dude is 3-3 [in his last six fights]. He says since I’m going up, he should fight for an interim title.
“Why? I just defended the belt in January.”
As of now, Gustafsson’s request has seemingly fallen on deaf ears considering Cormier did just fight in January and he could still potentially return to light heavyweight before the end of 2018, which means the title would be on the shelf for less than a year.
Add to that, Cormier says that Gustafsson only seems to really start speaking up when it’s clear that he’s not getting a shot at the belt.
Cormier claims the same exact thing happened for his last fight when he was waiting on an opponent and Gustafsson only started raising a stink after Oezdemir was declared the No. 1 contender in the division.
“So I feel at this point we’ve kind of earned the right to say if a fight at heavyweight is what’s most important to me, that’s what I’m going to do. I’ve got a guy like Alexander Gustafsson, who had his mouth shut the whole time, then when I fought Volkan [Oezdemir], he had something to say,” Cormier stated.
“Now that I’m going up at heavyweight, all of a sudden he’s got a ton to say. But these guys don’t talk until you’re scheduled to do something.”
The UFC has made no indication whatsoever that they are even considering an interim title at 205 pounds in Cormier’s absence, especially with the short list of potential contenders who could fill a slot against Gustafsson in a fight right now.
In the mean time, Cormier is going to stay focused on the task at hand and that’s making history on July 7 when he faces Miocic with the UFC heavyweight title up for grabs.
