Daniel Cormier: I have a mental advantage over Alexander Gustafsson

Although UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier (16-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC) thinks Alexander Gustafsson (16-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) is a “head-scratcher” of an opponent and would prefer to fight Jon Jones, he is feeling extremely confident that he’ll defend his title when they meet in October.

“Being the way that he lost to Anthony (Johnson) kind of made it surprising that I was fighting him,” Cormier recently told MMAjunkie. “But for me, if there was a guy, I’d prefer it be a guy who just experienced what he did in the octagon last time he was there, because not only did he get destroyed, he publicly said he was thinking about stopping fighting and pursuing something different.”

Cormier is referring to interviews Gustafsson gave in the wake of his January loss to Johnson, a title eliminator that cleared “Rumble” for a title shot against then-champ Jon Jones at UFC 187.

Gustafsson, who hasn’t fought since his loss, said an outpouring of fan support led him away from thoughts of retirement and inspired him to continue on with his career.

Cormier said Gustafsson’s admission is a sign of weakness that’s buoyed him in advance of UFC 192, which takes place Oct. 3 at Houston’s Toyota Center and airs live on pay-per-view.

“You’ve got to be all-in on this sport; you can’t be one foot out the door,” Cormier said. “For me, my confidence is very high after hearing him saying those things. You don’t quit after you get beat. You pick yourself up and you start rebuilding to accomplish your goals.”

Cormier undoubtedly knows about picking himself up after heartbreak. In fact, 2015 brought the lowest of lows and highest of highs in his professional MMA career.

Three weeks before Gustafsson was knocked out by Johnson in the first round at UFC on FOX 14, the former Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix champ faced his greatest career challenge against longtime rival Jones. After five gritty rounds, Jones emerged with a unanimous decision to notch his eighth title defense with Cormier suffering his first professional loss. Four months later, Cormier got the call to replace Jones after he was stripped of the belt and indefinitely suspended in the wake of an alleged hit-and-run incident. He went on to face Johnson and earned a third-round submission to claim the vacant UFC light heavyweight title.

Cormier isn’t sympathetic to Gustafsson’s vulnerability despite his own raw emotion following his loss to Jones.

“Hearing that, it gives me more confidence in knowing that if Alex didn’t have to fight any more, he’d be OK with it,” he said. “That’s not how I am. I need to fight.”

While Cormier doesn’t necessarily think his mental edge will make Gustafsson any less of a physical threat in the UFC’s octagon, he thinks it’s an intangible that will ultimately become apparent when they fight.

“Anybody fighting right now that’s thinking about the other side, you do hold a little bit of an advantage,” he said. “I’m not saying it’s an advantage to win the fight going out, but going into your training sessions, you don’t have your eyes on what’s next. You’re still focusing in the moment.

“He had to get refocused and think about doing this again. He thought about quitting, and at the end of the day, that’s not good when you’re fighting.”

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