After UFC 170 destruction of Cummins, Daniel Cormier to keep weight off, stay ready

Following his first win at light heavyweight after an unbeaten career at heavyweight, Daniel Cormier isn’t planning on bulking up now that the first one is out of the way.

With the possible exception of a Sunday post-fight celebration courtesy of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Cormier is planning to stay as close to his new light heavyweight limit as he can. After all, he’d like to be ready if any 205-pounders at the top of the food chain need a replacement opponent.

Cormier (14-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) on Saturday tore through short-notice opponent Patrick Cummins (4-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) with a 79-second TKO in the co-main event of UFC 170. That fight came together after Rashad Evans had to pull out with an injury, and Cormier campaigned to get some fight, any fight, in the wake of the work he put in to drop from heavyweight to light heavyweight for the first time.

On Sunday, Cormier tweeted an Instagram photo of him taking delivery of Popeyes for him and his team. The victory celebration with the chicken chain was one that went viral this past Wednesday after he talked about how his diet went off the rails with Popeyes after he learned Evans was out and he wouldn’t be getting a new opponent. But the next morning, that new opponent came in the form of Cummins – and Cormier, a Louisiana native, had to get back on track.

Now, though, he said he’ll keep the weight off.

“I’ve got to do that regardless, whether I’m fighting or not,” Cormier said at the post-event news conference for UFC 170 at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. “I can’t get so far away from the weight that I have to restart this whole process. I’m going to stay as close as I need to be. I’d like to fight again (soon), but it seems like everybody’s pretty much tied up.

“I guess I stay ready and if someone gets injured, the fight makes sense. I’ll fight anytime. They’ve got some big fights coming up. If anybody gets hurt, they can give me a call.”

Most notably, light heavyweight champion Jon Jones has a fight booked against Glover Teixeira at UFC 172 on April 26 in Baltimore. A potential fight with Jones is one of the reasons Cormier made the move down to light heavyweight. (He also has the issue of his friend and American Kickboxing Academy teammate Cain Velasquez holding the heavyweight title.)

Cormier said his 205-pound debut had him changing his strategy since he’ll be fighting smaller and faster opponents than those he was facing at heavyweight.

“I felt pretty good. I felt like I could fight long. I felt like I was in shape,” he said. “When I was at heavyweight, I kind of would feel guys out a little bit. I think these guys are a little faster, so I may not be able to do that anymore.”

Not giving himself a feel-out process against Cummins didn’t prove to be an issue. Cummins helped Cormier prepare for the 2004 Olympics in wrestling. But one of the ways he talked his way into the fight was by letting UFC President Dana White know he made Cormier cry when they trained together.

There was, of course, some context to that back story that Cormier had to enlighten people on. But the fact he was talking out of school didn’t sit well with Cormier. In the buildup to the fight, including a shove of Cummins at the pre-fight news conference, Cormier seemed angry – though he said he didn’t fight that way.

“Obviously when you start hearing things about what happened in the wrestling room, I like to keep that stuff personal,” he said. “I was going through a lot of things at the time. It did upset me. But once I get into the cage, my emotion doesn’t drive me. I fight like I’m going to fight regardless. That’s what a training camp’s for. You can make me mad, and we can fuss at the press conference, but I’ll never carry that into the cage. Once I got into the octagon, I was fine. He could’ve been anyone else, and I would’ve competed the same way that I did.”

At light heavyweight, that could prove to be a big problem for many of his new potential opponents. Against Frank Mir and Roy Nelson, his first two UFC opponents, he won decisions.

But he looked much different, not just physically, against Cummins, and there apparently were two major reasons why.

“Every time I fight now, I feel more comfortable,” Cormier said. “I’m scared of myself. I went from being really nervous to now there’s no nerves whatsoever. Against Nelson, against Cummins – no nerves. The thing I took from the fight more than anything is that my power actually carried me a lot further than it did at heavyweight because the same uppercut I hurt Patrick with the first time, I landed against Frank Mir maybe 15 times. I did it against Roy Nelson, Josh Barnett. Those guys just kind of ate them. It visibly affected him tonight.

“My power’s going to carry me a lot further in this division because I’m not as small (next to my opponents).”

For complete coverage of UFC 170, stay tuned to the UFC Events section of the site.