Trading Shots: Daniel Cormier is still champ, but did that convince anyone he's the best?

With his win at UFC 220, Daniel Cormier said he feels like the UFC light-heavyweight champion again. But will fans ever really see him that way after two failed attempts to dethrone Jon Jones, and if not, what then? Retired UFC and WEC fighter Danny Downes and MMAjunkie columnist Ben Fowlkes discuss in this week’s Trading Shots.

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Downes: Ben, your favorite high school gym teacher went out there in Boston on Saturday night and took care of business. Daniel Cormier defended his UFC light heavyweight title against Volkan Oezdemir in convincing fashion via second-round TKO, but as the belt was wrapped around his waist, I couldn’t help but shrug my shoulders and go “meh.”

Cormier just beat a guy who he spent the last couple weeks telling us “wasn’t on his level.” He had a point, but what are we supposed to think about a light-heavyweight champion who retains his title by beating a member of the “JV” team?

The rest of the 205-pound division doesn’t really provide him with any other options to build up his prestige, so what did Cormier really accomplish in Boston? Do we even care about a light-heavyweight division without the sidelined former champ Jon Jones?

Fowlkes: First of all, OK, I get what you’re saying about the JV team remarks. Downplaying your opponent’s abilities can definitely have the effect of making the victory seem less impressive.

But I can’t hate on it here because, a) I love that Cormier’s trash-talk always has this consistent theme, wherein he views the entire world of professional cagefighting through the lens of high school wrestling, which is a pretty rad gimmick, and b) in this case he was telling the truth.

No disrespect to “No Time” Oezdemir, but I think we can all agree that he was the beneficiary of a suddenly thin light-heavyweight division. The best fighter in the weight class is, to borrow Cormier’s terminology, ineligible. The second-best fighter is still really, really good, and probably one of the best to ever do it in that division, but it’s hard to treat these as genuine title bouts when we all remember seeing him facedown on the mat just this past summer.

That loss got wiped out by Jones’ drug-test results, but that doesn’t mean it got erased from our minds. Part of it is the nature of that whole situation. Jones and his team are still arguing that he wasn’t intentionally doping. Some people will probably buy that; some won’t. But no matter what they think of Jones, how many people will manage to talk themselves into seeing Cormier as the world’s best light heavyweight?

I like Cormier a lot as a person. I think he’s a genuinely good man, a fierce competitor, and one of the best fighters in the UFC. I just can’t call him the world’s best light heavyweight, even with the UFC belt around his waist, and whether he talks someone like Oezdemir down or up, that’s not going to change unless he beats Jones.

Maybe that’s why Dana White’s plea for a Cormier vs. Stipe Miocic fight doesn’t sound like such a bad idea. I know Cormier wants to keep that heavyweight contender spot open for his friend Cain Velasquez, but would he be wise to step up and take a shot at a title in a new weight class where he might actually be able to call himself the best?

Downes: Champion vs. champion is the superhero movie of MMA. Can’t think of anything creative or don’t want to put in any effort? Make two champions fight each other!

I suppose there’s nothing else for Cormier to do, though. I know you’re looking forward to Gadzhimurad Antigulov getting a crack a the belt, but he’ll just have to wait.

The heavyweight division doesn’t exactly have a bunch of contenders waiting for Miocic. Velazquez makes the most sense, but his current winning streak sits at one, and he hasn’t fought since UFC 200. Plus there’s no guarantee that he’ll make it to fight night, much less defend the belt if he were to win it.

Miocic vs. Cormier may make the most sense, but it’s also the least likely of the champion vs. champion matchups. As long as Velasquez remains a current fighter on the roster, Cormier won’t fight in that division. Seeing that Cormier turns 39 in March, we don’t have a lot of time to wait around. Since that’s the case, what are we supposed to do with DC?

Even if Jones weren’t fighting off another doping allegation, we’d still be in the same situation. There are enough interesting fights at 205 to fill an undercard, but I can’t think of a single one that’s “main-event worthy.”

So what do we do? Are we supposed to be impressed by someone beating sub-par talent? And if not, how can we respect someone as a champion if we aren’t impressed with their performance?

Fowlkes: The problem for Cormier is not just sub-par talent around him. Oezdemir? He’s a good fighter. In an alternate universe where Jones is banned for life and Cormier gives up fighting to become Coach C, the man who demands greatness from his teenage wrestlers while hiking his pants up to his armpits, maybe “No Time” ends up as the best 205-pounder in the game.

Being the best is a relative feat. All it means is that you’re better than whoever else there is.

Cormier’s problem is that Jones is still in the picture, even while he’s not an active participant, and it’s really hard to find any way to believe that he wouldn’t beat Cormier all over again if they fought tomorrow.

So now you’re asking us to pretend, at least temporarily, that the No. 2 guy is actually the No. 1, and that a fight between No. 2 and No. 3 is actually a fight to determine the best in the world.

We know better than that. We can’t suspend our disbelief quite that much, not even when we factor in some stray Turinabol that no one seems to know the origin of. As long as Jones is out, the best Cormier can do is continue making his admittedly rock-solid case as the second-best light heavyweight. Needless to say, that just doesn’t have the same shine to it.

If Velasquez is close to coming back – and I mean really close – fine, I understand Cormier’s reluctance. But right now the most encouraging thing anyone can say is that he’s in the gym, though not quite ready to book a fight.

In that case, with his own window of opportunity closing, I’d still like to see Cormier take his shot at heavyweight. If the biggest downside is that he some day faces a choice between vacating the heavyweight title and fighting his friend, maybe that’s not the worst thing that can happen. Seems better than sticking around light heavyweight to be the champion who kinda, sorta isn’t.

For more on UFC 220, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

Ben Fowlkes is MMAjunkie and USA TODAY’s MMA columnist. Danny Downes, a retired UFC and WEC fighter, is an MMAjunkie contributor who has also written for UFC.com and UFC 360. Follow them on twitter at @benfowlkesMMA and @dannyboydownes.