Daniel Cormier Says ‘UFC 226’ Was A ‘WrestleMania Moment,’ And He Wants WWE & MMA Fans To Come Together
Just two weeks ago, At UFC 226, reigning UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier knocked out Stipe Miocic to win the heavyweight title to become a two-division champion. As the Inquisitr reported, after he won the bout, Daniel Cormier cut a WWE-like promo on Brock Lesnar, who was sitting next to Dana White in the front row. Cormier invited the WWE champion into the octagon, and just seconds later, Brock entered the cage and shoved the newly crowned heavyweight champion. The two then took turns talking smack to each other.
Dana White later revealed that his plan all along was to have Brock Lesnar face the winner of the UFC 226 main event for the heavyweight championship. The WWE Universal Champion will be eligible to fight again in the UFC in January of 2019, and his potential fight with Cormier will likely happen early next year. There are various rumors involving the details of Lesnar’s WWE contract, but if he is still wrestling for the company during his MMA return, then there’s a possibility that he will challenge for the UFC Heavyweight Championship while still holding the WWE Universal Championship.
The WWE covered the main event of UFC 226 on their website, and the two companies have promoted each other’s brand before when Brock Lesnar faced Mark Hunt at UFC 200. Fans of both the WWE and the UFC loved the crossover promotion, but those who are only fans of either MMA or professional wrestling largely hated it; many diehard UFC fans, and some MMA fighters as well, do not feel that professional wrestling should be mixed with MMA because it is scripted, and many wrestling fans simply find mixed martial arts contests to be boring in comparison to the scripted action that they love.
As seen in the video below, in an interview with Denise Salcedo for Instinct Culture at ESPN’s Sports Humanitarian Awards, Daniel Cormier spoke of the Brock Lesnar incident and how he loves the cross promotion. To start the interview off, Salcedo asked Cormier if he plans on defending the light heavyweight title before his potential fight with Brock Lesnar. He responded by saying that he intends to, and that he wants to have as many fights as he can before he retires by next March. The UFC two-division champion will turn 40 in March, and he has made it clear that he no longer wants to compete in MMA at 40 years old.
Daniel Cormier also revealed that his friend, WWE superstar Seth Rollins, texted him after UFC 226 to congratulate him. As heard in the video below, Rollins told Cormier to, “Kick Brock’s a*s.” When asked how he was feeling when Lesnar entered the octagon after he just won the championship, Cormier said that it was like a WrestleMania moment for him, and he added that it was awesome.
As Uproxx transcribed, Daniel Cormier expressed how he wants fans of both the WWE and the UFC to come together.
“Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Just because you like one doesn’t mean you may not like the other. I think [UFC and WWE] have very passionate fan bases. That’s why you see people on one side so mad or people on the other side so made. [Let’s] all just come together and buy the pay-per-view; that’s all I want.”
Daniel Cormier is one of the most popular fighters in the UFC, and Brock Lesnar is one of the most controversial wrestlers in the WWE. If Lesnar and Cormier end up fighting for the UFC Heavyweight Championship, and if Lesnar is still the WWE Universal Champion when the would-be fight occurs, then they could end up drawing history-making numbers.
