Daniel Cormier has made a lot of smart choices during the extended lead-up to Saturday night's UFC 182 clash against Jon Jones.
You could argue, in fact, that the undefeated former U.S. Olympic wrestling team captain has yet to make a wrong turn during his five-year MMA career. Certainly, Cormier's impressive amateur credentials had him set for success all along, but he's also been savvy and thoughtful enough to cop to a certain amount of cold, hard pragmatism.
He was already 30 years old when he made his MMA debut in 2009 and will be just two-and-a-half months shy of turning 36 when he tangles with Jones this weekend. Cormier knows full well that the clock is ticking on his athletic prime and that this fight may well represent his last best chance both to win a world title and make a lot of money in the process.
His distaste for all things "Bones" Jones is obviously very real, but we'd be foolish not to acknowledge that these two guys have also put on a master class in fight promotion during the last six months or so—and that they both probably know exactly what they're doing.
That trend continued during Monday's media events. Cormier largely let Jones take the lead in playing the villain—always a clever gambit—but also confirmed along with the light heavyweight champ during an appearance on Fox Sports 1 that he can't rule out the possibility of another huge on-stage brawl by the end of the week.
"I don't know what's going to happen at the weigh-in on Friday," Jones said, via MMAJunkie.com. "I'm a guy who lives in my heart, so whatever happens, happens. I'll be ready for combat. I'll be ready to take it any way it goes."
"As Jon says, we take it how it goes," Cormier concurred. "It's a matter of, 'How are we going to do this?' I would prefer to wait until Saturday, but if we had to fight on Friday, it would be OK, I guess."
You don't have to be P.T. Barnum to appreciate the genius at work here.
Of course, Jones and Cormier aren't going to fight at the weigh-ins. After half a year's worth of schtick, an unforeseen injury delay and just a couple days away from the first event of the UFC's vitally important 2015? No way.
But there's sure no harm in leaving the door cracked open just a little bit. The producers of Friday's weigh-in show will no doubt thank them for it later.
You can't blame Cormier—who in real life is by all accounts one of MMA's nicest men—if he's been more than just a willing participant in building this rivalry. Saturday night marks his first UFC main event, his first chance to win a major MMA title—apologies to the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix championship, but, yeah—and to capture the spoils that go along with it.
A victory etches his name into the history books as the guy who took the gold off the unbeatable No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world. It also sets him up for a high-profile and extremely lucrative 2015, with a potential Jones rematch or a big-money fight with either Alexander Gustafsson or Anthony Johnson.
A loss? Cormier has known since the beginning what that would mean.
"I don't have the luxury, at 35 years old, of having a hiccup," he admitted to Philly.com's Justin Klugh in March as he prepared to take on Dan Henderson. "The pressure's more on me because I know that this is my last chance to do something really special in regards to my athletic career."
It was Cormier, remember, who called out Jones in the first place after dispensing Henderson by easy-peasy rear-naked choke at UFC 173. The speech he gave to UFC color commentator Joe Rogan sounded both rehearsed ("I'm that kid at the wrestling tournament that's always in your bracket.") and a touch out of character for the mild-mannered Cormier ("You can't run from me forever. Wherever you go, boy, I'll be coming.").
In any case, it was shrewd. Cormier clearly knew the shortest distance between his 2-0 mark at 205 pounds and a title shot was to needle the division's notoriously needle-able champion.
Since then, their trash talk—which had been copious—unfolded in more or less the same fashion. Whether it's Jones prompting his six-year-old daughter to enter the fray on Instagram ("DC, my dad's going to beat you up.") or Cormier blasting Jones when they thought ESPN's cameras weren't rolling ("You are the fakest person. I actually admire that you can be this fake."), there's been an awkward undercurrent to it all. (Warning: Link contains NSFW language.)
It's been Jones admitting he's embracing his role as the bad guy while Cormier chuckles to himself and smiles like he can't quite believe the words that are coming out of either of their mouths. It's been wonderful TV, but it also hasn't happened by accident. Even when it did.
The enmity between these two men isn't fake. It's not staged. But it's also not not staged, right?
In 2014-15, we must assume any time two professional fighters engage in an over-the-top public beef that at least some of it is for our benefit. Two guys as smart, disciplined and experienced as Jones and Cormier don't topple off the stage, all arms and legs in the middle of a Las Vegas casino, without a sly wink to the fourth wall. They don't do it without—as UFC President Dana White once urged Nick Diaz —playing the game just a little bit.
In Cormier's case, we know it's because he understands the gravity of the moment. No way does he want to lose this fight, only to spend another year he doesn't have rebuilding himself at light heavyweight or even heavyweight.
He wants to win, but if he can't do that, he at least wants to go home knowing he pulled out all the stops in and out of the cage.
from Bleacher Report http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Bleacherreport/~3/xLkcMnlltGc/2314936-daniel-cormier-knows-it-could-be-now-or-never-to-win-ufc-gold-break-the-bank
via IFTTT December 30, 2014 at 01:38PM
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