Daniel Cormier loves the idea of Robert Whittaker vs. Kamaru Usman at middleweight.
Whittaker (25-7 MMA, 15-5 UFC) urged Usman to stay at 185 pounds after his impressive short-notice showing against undefeated Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 294 last month. Usman lost the fight by majority decision, but the former UFC welterweight champion was able to rally after losing Round 1 big.
Whittaker will also look to rebound in his next fight after getting stopped by Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 290, and considering that they’re both former champions, Cormier thinks Whittaker and Usman (20-4 MMA, 15-3 UFC) should be involved in marquee fights.
“I tap in, I tap all the way into this fight,” Cormier said on his ESPN show “DC & RC.” “I think it’s a big fight, and I think both these guys deserve to walk to the octagon in massive fights every single time.
“So if they’re not fighting for the championship, they should be fighting championship level fights. So, I’m all in on Kamaru Usman vs. Robert Whittaker.”
While he didn’t commit, Usman appeared open to the idea of staying at middleweight. Usman finds himself in unfamiliar territory after dropping three in a row – back-to-back to Leon Edwards in title fights, and most recently Chimaev.
“The plans, I don’t know. It’s kind of foggy,” Usman recently said on his YouTube channel. “I didn’t mind being up at 185. Yeah, of course the size was a bit different in the beginning, but I’m a championship level fighter, so from here on out, we want to make these five rounds and not three rounders. I don’t know,185 looked good on me, so we might. We’ll get back to y’all on that.”
