Daniel Cormier is going to rely on a little help from his friends.
As he prepares for his upcoming battle with Jon Jones for the light heavyweight title at UFC 178 on September 27, it is clear that the challenger is not taking an chances. Cormier has reached out to some of the UFC’s top names to help him prepare for his shot at the belt.
“I’ve got some friends and they put me in contact with some of the guys down in southern California, with Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida. I may down go there for a week,” Cormier said on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “That’s a possibility. We haven’t worked out all the details, but that is a possibility and we’ll see what happens.”
If he is successful in recruiting Machida and Silva, they will join an All-Star team of backers for Cormier that already includes Phil Davis and Cyril Diabate who will join his camp in mid-August. That’s not including his regular training partners, UFC Heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez and Luke Rockhold.
“I tell Jon Jones, show me two guys who can beat my two main training partners, Cain Velasquez and Luke Rockhold,” Cormier said of his accomplished stablemates at AKA. “You show me your two who are going to prepare you better than my two. So I’m going to rely on my guys, man. I’m going to rely on Cain, I’m going to rely on Luke to help me become the UFC champion. I’m going to reach out a little bit, but I’m not going to stray very far from my comfort zone.”
Cormier also assured that his knee will not give him any trouble during the match. While he was supposed to undergo knee surgery this month, he delayed the procedure and then received the call to replace Alexander Gustafsson.
“I believe that on September 27th, reach and height, I don’t think all that’s going to matter. I believe I have the ability to beat Jon. I have the ability to compete with Jon, and I have the confidence in knowing that I can get the job done. This is the first time you have two undefeated guys fighting for a UFC championship. This is a big deal, man. This is the type of fight that we need in MMA to show that guys can sustained being undefeated for a really long time, and then getting to the top of the sport and fighting each other for the ultimate prize. So this is a big deal. I know I can feel it, Jon can feel it, and it can’t wait for it.”
