Corey Anderson is willing to take Dana White’s advice and take the fights offered to him, but his caveat for doing so has not changed.
Following his first-round TKO of highly-touted prospect Johnny Walker at UFC 244, Corey Anderson danced his way to the front of the contender line to challenge Jon Jones next, or so he thought. Dana White has deemed Dominick Reyes as being worthier of the title shot and advised Anderson to cease complaining and start accepting fights offered instead. Corey Anderson believes that he has earned a title shot, but he is most firm on his stance that someone undeserving should not skip him in the light heavyweight contender line:
“I want to fight for belt next, then I saw what Dana said about ‘Corey being dumb, he talks too much, take the fights we give you’,” Anderson told MMA Fighting. “I have no problem taking the fights you give me but at the same time, I don’t want to be at the point where they’re trying to bump up some new contender again, some guy they picked up on short notice or has a great post-fight interview and they try to put him in front of me to fight for the title. That’s what I was saying.”
Corey Anderson also clarified reports of him giving the UFC an ultimatum following his UFC 244 victory to either grant him a title shot or releasing him. Anderson stated that his comments were taken out of context and that he was responding to a hypothetical scenario where another fighter ranked beneath him skipped him in the title-shot line. Anderson is accepting of Dominick Reyes being next for Jon Jones, but that does not change his desire to fight whoever is the champion for his next bout:
“I want to fight Jon Jones for the title and I want to fight for the title next,” Anderson explained. “I said after [the fight] to Joe Rogan, I’ve got things going on the rest of the year. I know Jon wants to fight in December. I know Dominick can fight in December cause he didn’t get hurt [in his last fight]. But I have things going on all of November so ideally and logistically it wouldn’t make sense for me to say I want to fight in December, give me that one. Because I wouldn’t be prepared.
“But I want that fight. I want that fight as soon as possible. As soon as I’m back in the gym and he agrees to it, let’s go.”
Whom do you believe Corey Anderson should fight next?
