Daniel Cormier has an idea of how he wants to see the UFC featherweight division play out.
The division is red-hot with young talent on the rise as champion Alexander Volkanovski (27-4 MMA, 14-3 UFC) awaits his next title defense. Lerone Murphy knocked out Aaron Pico at UFC 319 to emerge as a top contender, Diego Lopes knocked out Jean Silva at Noche UFC to re-stake his claim, and Youssef Zalal climbed the ranks with a quick submission of Josh Emmett at UFC 320.
Here’s are Cormier’s desired matchups.
“The title shot for me is Volk vs. Lerone Murphy,” Cormier said on “Good Guy/Bad Guy” with Chael Sonnen. “Then I want to do Lopes vs. Yair Rodriguez. Do you remember when Diego Lopes and Yair Rodriguez were fighting when they weren’t supposed to fight each other? They were fighting at press conferences and stuff. It’s so personal between those two that they could fight, and people would pay attention because of the history, but it could also matter because a win could potentially make them the No. 1 contender.
“Here’s the problem with (Movsar) Evloev, because he’s not known: I would do Evloev vs. Zalal. Then you’ll say you left out No. 5 Aljamain Sterling. I would do Evloev vs. Zalal because Zalal is a guy who’s on that big run. If he beats Evloev, he really puts himself in the place, but if Evloev beats him, let’s just move him into a title fight. You can’t deny a guy that’s won that many times. What do I do with Aljo? He sits as that backup fighter.”
Volkanovski, who reclaimed the featherweight title in an interim title fight against Lopes at UFC 314 in April, was initially zoning in on Murphy in December, but recently said he sees a four-man race for his next challenger.
